(Jan 6): GoTo Group said Patrick Walujo will run the company for about five more years, giving the chief executive officer more time to turn around Indonesia’s unprofitable ride-hailing and food-delivery champion.

Walujo, who took the reins in 2023, will stay on as the CEO until 2029, GoTo said in a statement on Monday. Walujo, 49, is a managing partner of private equity firm Northstar Group, one of the earliest investors in the ride-hailing pioneer that later formed a major part of GoTo.

Since Walujo abruptly took over as the CEO in June 2023, the company has moved closer to profitability — yet its shares have lost about 40% during his leadership. Walujo has slashed jobs and exited businesses as user growth cooled and competition from Grab Holdings Ltd and smaller regional rivals weighs on margins.

“Over the course of Patrick’s tenure as the CEO, the company’s prospects have been transformed, setting the stage for long-term benefits for shareholders and other stakeholders,” Agus Martowardojo, GoTo’s president commissioner, said in the statement.

A year ago, Walujo struck a deal to relinquish control of GoTo’s loss-making e-commerce arm Tokopedia to ByteDance Ltd's TikTok in a US$1.5 billion (RM6.8 billion) arrangement.

Last year, GoTo shut operations in Vietnam to focus on its main operations in Indonesia and Singapore. The company has yet to reach positive net income, despite thousands of staff cuts and large reductions in marketing expenditure.

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee