untitled design

Asian Grab, urban transport, debuts on Nasdaq after merger of US$ 40 billion

Shares in Grab, Southeast Asia’s largest urban transport and food-by-app delivery company, made a steady debut in the US market on Thursday after the biggest merger in history involving a blank check company in the value of 40 billion dollars.

The Nasdaq listing marks the highlight of the Singapore company, which started nine years ago as an urban transport application and now operates in 465 cities across eight countries, offering food delivery, payments, insurance and investment products.

The company’s shares rose up to 21% at the opening, before running out of steam and trading close to stability.

“The price doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to celebrate tonight and get back to work tomorrow,” Chief Executive Anthony Tan told Reuters shortly after the stock’s debut.

The listing, which is also the largest in the United States by a Southeast Asian company, comes after the company agreed in April to merge with the blank-check company Altimeter Growth, owned by US technology investor Altimeter Capital Management. The operation raised $4.5 billion, including $750 million from Altimeter.

Southeast Asia’s digital economy is expected to double to $360 billion in gross value of goods (GMV) by 2025, making Grab’s rivals gain muscle, including regional internet company Sea and Indonesian group GoTo.

“What we’ve shown the world is that local tech companies can develop great technology that can compete globally, even when international competitors have a local presence,” Tan told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “We can compete and win.”

Grab’s listing brings a big return for early investors, such as Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and Chinese giant Didi Chuxing, which controls Brazilian 99 and became a shareholder in Grab in 2014.

Grab’s third-quarter revenue was down 9% year-on-year and adjusted Ebitda was negative by $212 million. GMV in the quarter reached $4 billion. The company intends to have a positive Ebitda in 2023.

Reference: CNN Brasil

You may also like

Ethena Labs project will hold an airdrop
Top News
David

Ethena Labs project will hold an airdrop

The Ethereum-based decentralized stablecoin (USDe) protocol team, Ethena Labs, announced an airdrop on April 2, 2024. We are excited to

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular