S’pore had new billionaire for a few hours before Grab shares slid in US debut
SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - "The stock will go up and it will go down," said Mr Anthony Tan, co-founder of Grab Holdings, moments after Nasdaq's bell-ringing ceremony in Singapore on Thursday night (Dec 2), the first such event held in South-east Asia. He was right on the money. Grab soared in pre-market trading in New York but after opening 18 per cent higher at US$13.06, the shares tumbled 20.5 per cent to close at US$8.75 on its first day. The stock made its debut after the ride-hailing and delivery company completed its merger with the blank-cheque firm of Silicon Valley investor Brad Gerstner's Altimeter Capital Management, the largest deal yet to close for a special purpose acquisition company (Spac). The slide wiped about US$17 billion (S$23.3 billion) from the market value of the company and meant that Mr Tan's stake, initially worth more than a billion dollars, ended at US$725 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Grab has yet to post a profit, but investors had largely welcomed the transaction, which raised US$4.5 billion in gross proceeds. Those include US$4 billion in private investment in public equity, or Pipe, marking the biggest US public market debut ...
Grab Q2 loss widens to $1.09 billion, cuts full-year outlook on Covid-19 spread
SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES, REUTERS) - Grab sank deeper into the red in its second quarter, even as revenue more than doubled. South-east Asia’s ride-hailing and delivery giant cut its full-year projections for several key matrix this year, citing renewed uncertainty amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It posted a net loss of US$815 million (S$1.09 billion) for the three months ended June 30, exceeding the US$718 million net loss recorded a year earlier. Meanwhile, revenue rose to US$180 million. The bulk of US$118 million in revenue came from the mobility segment, where revenue jumped 128 per cent year on year. The deliveries segment was up 92 per cent to hit US$45 million, while the company’s financial services contributed US$6 million. Grab expects to report group-level adjusted net sales of US$2.1 billion to US$2.2 billion, a step down from the US$2.3 billion it initially projected in April. It also expects full-year gross merchandise value of US$15 billion to US$15.5 billion, trimmed from an earlier forecast of US$16.7 billion. “Grab’s full-year 2021 outlook anticipates an extension of partial and complete lockdowns throughout several countries where Grab operates as a result of th...
Grab to trial new green ride-hailing service
SINGAPORE - Ride-hailing firm Grab will trial a new service for commuters in central Singapore to book rides only on hybrid or electric vehicles from next Wednesday (July 14) as part of its efforts to go green. Called JustGrab Green, the service will comprise electric or hybrid vehicles with at least an A2 Vehicular Emissions Scheme banding. These include the Hyundai Kona Electric, Toyota Prius and Kia Niro Hybrid. These vehicles emit less than 125g of carbon dioxide per km, a 55 per cent reduction compared with regular petrol vehicles, Grab said on Wednesday (July 7). The service, which will have the same price structure as Grab's regular JustGrab service, will first be made available to passengers booking rides from central areas. These areas include the Central Business District, Bukit Merah, Bukit Timah, Orchard, Bishan, Marine Parade and Geylang. Grab said it will expand the service to more locations progressively. From next Wednesday, Grab users will also be given the option to pay an additional 10 cents when booking a ride to contribute to carbon offset and solar power projects. Grab will match contributions made by commuters for the first three million rides. One of the pro...
Grab CEO confident Spac merger to close by year-end after delay
SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Grab Holdings chief executive officer Anthony Tan said he's confident the merger of the ride-hailing and food-delivery giant and a US blank-cheque company will be completed by year-end, following a delay caused by a review of its financials. The Singapore-based start-up last week postponed the expected completion of the deal with Altimeter Growth Corp - set to be one of the largest-ever mergers with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) - to the fourth quarter as it works on an audit of the past three years. When announcing the pact in April, Grab said in an investor presentation its completion target was July. "We decided to be proactive," Mr Tan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. "We wanted to set the bar in transparent financial reporting. It may have taken a little longer than we expected." Grab, which operates across South-east Asia, is the latest company to be affected by intensifying scrutiny from US financial regulators on deals involving Spacs. After a frenzy of listings, the Spac market has been hit by a crackdown by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as lawsuits from shareholders, falling stock prices and d...
Grab’s Nasdaq debut to test its US$40 billion valuation, set roadmap for Spac hopefuls
SINGAPORE (REUTERS) - Singapore's Grab more than doubled its valuation to US$40 billion (S$53 billion) in about a year as part of the world's largest Spac deal, but maintaining that level after its US debut will be a test not only for investors but also for firms eyeing similar listings. Earlier this month, South-east Asia's biggest ride-hailing and delivery firm, agreed to merge with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) backed by Silicon Valley investor Altimeter Capital Management. The backdoor Nasdaq listing will see nine-year-old Grab raise over US$4 billion, a record US offering from South-east Asia. Private fundraisings involve fewer investors who often bankroll big valuations. Analysts are now scrutinising whether Grab can justify its valuations by turbocharging growth in its existing businesses and successfully foraying into digital banking. Sumeet Singh, Aequitas Research partner, writing on the Smartkarma research platform, said Grab's listing was "high" on ambition and "very high" on valuation, citing Grab's enterprise value to revenue multiple of nine for 2022, a valuation similar to US food delivery firm DoorDash's. DoorDash, however, is expected by analysts to...
Grab’s record Spac deal could make CEO Anthony Tan a billionaire
SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - The Spac boom may be deflating after more than a year of frenzy, but it's still creating vast riches for the right deals. Take Grab Holdings, South-east Asia's ride-hailing and delivery giant, which is merging with the special purpose acquisition company (Spac) Altimeter Growth Corp and plans to go public in the US by July. The transaction will give the Singapore-based company a market value of US$39.6 billion (S$52.6 billion) up from a valuation of US$16 billion earlier this year. For co-founder and chief executive officer Anthony Tan, who will hold 2.2 per cent of Grab after the deal, that means his fortune will surge to US$829 million, based on the stock he will own. The shares co-founder Tan Hooi Ling and president Ming Maa will have will be worth US$256 million and US$144 million, respectively, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Shares of the Spac are trading about US$3 above the deal price, meaning that the CEO could soon become a billionaire. A Grab representative declined to comment. 'Positive reaction' "The market's positive reaction to the Grab merger signals strong investor enthusiasm for transportation technology and the future of mob...
How Grab CEO’s Harvard connection opened the door to world’s biggest Spac deal
SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - A few years after launching Grab Holdings in 2012, Anthony Tan got a piece of advice from Jack Ma. The co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding told the entrepreneur that life is a tsunami. When you're up on the wave, get ready for the crash, he said. In 2020, that all came to pass. The coronavirus sent cities across South-east Asia into lockdown. Demand for ride-hailing, a key business, plunged. Then around December, its big plan to merge with arch rival Gojek collapsed. Mr Tan wasn't ready to give up on going public. Early this year, a connection introduced him to the Silicon Valley investor Brad Gerstner, the founder of Altimeter Capital Management. The two men, though from opposite sides of the world, had a lot in common. Both were Harvard Business School alumni, and both had eschewed easier paths in life to set up their own firms. Within about three months, the pair had announced the world's biggest Spac deal, which will see Grab list in the US at a valuation of almost US$40 billion (S$53.4 billion). "A year ago, the world looked like it was going to end," Mr Tan, 39, said. "As an entrepreneur, you go through these crazy lows and crazy highs." In an intervie...
Grab to implement 30-cent platform fee for rides from Dec 18
SINGAPORE - Ride-hailing firm Grab will start charging a platform fee of 30 cents for rides booked through its platform from Dec 18. The fee is inclusive of goods and services tax, and will apply to all Grab rides except those from the GrabHitch and GrabResponse services. It is the first such move by the firm to adjust the prices of its ride-hailing offerings after the competition watchdog - Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) - lifted restrictions on it in November. Grab said on its website that the platform fee will go towards "funding initiatives that will make rides better, safer and more secure" for both passengers and its drivers. It added that two-thirds of the fee will be used to improve safety and security, among other things. The remaining one-third of the fee will go towards initiatives to support drivers, which include benefits and training allowances. "The platform fee (sometimes known as a service fee) is an industry-standard fee that many online platforms, such as delivery services, ride-hailing companies and vacation rental sites, impose for the usage of their platform/service," said Grab. Its main ride-hailing competitor in Singapore, Gojek, int...