Grab gives SG and SGX the finger

[Scrooball (clone)]

The end game is to raise prices when taxi companies go bust. It is clear they have used sheer financial muscle to displace taxi companies and are passing on the cost of fleet operations to their partner drivers. Ride hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are facing increasing regulatory pressure in the States. But some investors love volatility so there is that angle.

Taxi company goes bust in Singapore? Did the covid attack your brain cells?

 

[mojito]

Taxi company goes bust in Singapore? Did the covid attack your brain cells?

New york

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Uber is still losing money. But didi chuxing is profitable.
The weird this is, why didn't didi expand into South east asia.

Because big boys like Didi Chuxing and Uber realised that Southeast Asia is a relatively small market and is difficult: many countries with many regulations, many languages. Only second-tier players like Grab and GoJek will try to build a business in Southeast Asia.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Grab to list on Nasdaq on Thursday after Altimeter investors approve Spac merger​

The combined entity will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker GRAB.PHOTO: ST FILE

Choo Yun Ting

Dec 1, 2021

SINGAPORE - Super-app Grab will list in the United States on Thursday (Dec 2), after Altimeter Growth Corp's investors approved the merger between the two companies.
The combined entity will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker GRAB after the proposal was passed at an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday.
The merger is one of the largest special purpose acquisition company (Spac) deals ever, valuing the combined entity at nearly US$40 billion (S$54.6 billion).
Singapore-headquartered Grab, which started out in the ride-hailing business, has expanded its business operations to delivery and digital financial services in more than 400 cities across eight countries in South-east Asia.
Altimeter Growth said in a statement that there were virtually no shareholder redemptions, or shareholders voting to receive their investment back. Redemptions came in at 0.02 per cent.
Official voting numbers will be made public after a form 8-K is filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Grab's merger with Altimeter Growth was announced in April, around the peak of Spac interest. The deal, originally slated for completion in the third quarter of this year, was delayed as a financial audit of Grab's accounts was being finalised.
Last month, Grab reported that its net loss widened to US$988 million in the third quarter ended September, while revenue fell 9 per cent to US$157 million due to the decline in its mobility business as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns in Vietnam.
Its revenue drop came despite its gross merchandise revenue growing 32 per cent to US$4 billion for the period.
In recent weeks, Grab's app has experienced service issues, with users in Singapore and other markets facing intermittent disruption and being unable to order food or make ride bookings.


Commenting on Grab’s listing, Cathay Innovation director Rajive Keshup said that the firm’s going public signals a landmark for the South-east Asia tech ecosystem.
“There are a number of signals of confidence such as the low redemption rate which highlight Grab being a real flag bearer upon which a number of key players within the ecosystem are pinning their hopes.
“Should they do well it will pave a favourable path for the four to five other Spacs which are set to go right after,” he said.
Mr Keshup also noted that it has been difficult to put together Spac deals and associated PIPEs (private investment in public equity) in recent months, and he does not view such a move to be a viable outcome for now unless all the South-east Asia Spac deals in the pipeline “knock it out of the park” in the first half of 2022.
Origin Capital chief executive and chief investment officer Kelvin Tan also referred to Grab’s listing as a “bellwether for more to come”.
At the same time, its regular financial reporting as a listed company would likely also help to allay concerns about the company’s profitability and provide better communication to retail investors, he added.
The low redemption rate from initial investors is also a sign of confidence and is all the more reassuring considering how capital markets are shaky given concerns over the new Omicron Covid-19 variant, Mr Tan said.
Moving forward, it is likely that more Grab executives could cash out on their employee stock options and look to start their own companies or invest in other start-ups, further catalysing investment in the region, he noted.

 

[Patriotmissile]

This company can worth billions??

 

[Patriotmissile]

Any amount that crosses half a billion is speculative. Mark my words. What kind of innovation does this company have?

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

S'pore had new billionaire for a few hours before Grab shares slid in US debut​

Grab co-founder Anthony Tan's stake, initially worth more than a billion dollars, ended at US$725 million (S$992 million).
PHOTO: REUTERS

DEC 3, 2021


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 by a South-east Asian company. Singapore investment company Temasek, BlackRock and Fidelity International are among those that joined the Pipe.
The timing for going public, though, was not optimal. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely hampered ride-hailing businesses, and the Omicron variant is causing new limits on travel. Grab's home country of Singapore banned entry from seven African nations last week, and the Government said on Thursday that it had detected two imported cases of Omicron.

It had already been a turbulent year for Grab. Its merger with Altimeter Growth Corp, announced in April, got delayed due to an audit of the past three years' accounts, sending Altimeter shares for a wild ride. At the same time, the Spac boom that has attracted billions of dollars in the past couple of years has shown signs of easing amid increased regulatory scrutiny.
Mr Tan, whose great-grandfather was a taxi driver, was inspired to start Grab while working on his Master of Business Administration at Harvard Business School more than a decade ago. He gave up his family's business, one of the biggest auto distributors in Malaysia, and instead started a taxi-hailing service then known as MyTeksi with his Harvard classmate, Ms Tan Hooi Ling.
The project was later relocated to Singapore after raising money for a regional expansion and was rebranded as Grab in 2016. The company now also does food delivery, online payments and financial services.
Due to Grab's share-class structure, Mr Tan has 60.4 per cent voting rights even though he owns just 2.2 per cent of the company. If he fully exercises his stock options, his voting rights will increase to 66.11 per cent, according to a recent filing.
Even with today's slide, the deal has created considerable wealth for other key executives of the Singapore company. The holdings of Ms Tan, the co-founder, are now worth US$224 million, while president Ming Maa's are worth US$126 million.

But it is SoftBank Group, which poured about US$3 billion into Grab through a series of investments starting in 2014, that has made the most from the listing. Its 18.6 per cent holding is currently worth US$6.1 billion. Uber Technologies and Didi Chuxing Technology have stakes worth US$4.7 billion and US$2.5 billion respectively.
While Grab has generated wealth, its loss widened to US$988 million in the third quarter from US$621 million in the same period last year as revenue declined about 9 per cent to US$157 million. The increase in losses was mainly driven by non-cash expenses, and a "significant portion" of such costs should drop after the business combination.
The ongoing pandemic also took a toll on Grab's operations as demand for mobility services dwindled amid stricter lockdowns in Vietnam and restrictions across the region. Moreover, the company is facing growing competition after its Indonesian rival, Gojek, merged with e-commerce provider PT Tokopedia. GoTo, the combined entity, is preparing for an initial public offering at home and in the United States next year.
But Mr Tan remains confident that things will get better for Grab as more people get vaccinated in the region and opt to pursue the strategy of living with Covid-19.
"We are confident about our business," he said in an interview on Thursday.
The business "is tracking well" in terms of meeting this year's target of gross merchandise value of US$15 billion to US$15.5 billion, he added.

 

[JohnTan]

I expect Grab's revenue to grow exponentially next year when it launches its digital bank together with Singtel.

 

[syed putra]

How the fuck do u lose so much money after so many years?

This is one hell of a stinker stock that i will avoid when it launches its IPO.

They will say because its in expansion acquisition mode. Need more money to acquire market share.

 

[syed putra]

I expect Grab's revenue to grow exponentially next year when it launches its digital bank together with Singtel.

How to deposit money in digital bank?

 

[syed putra]

No wonder all these entrepreneurs can afford to buy good class bungalows.

This one he bought after temasek invested usd1 bil.

 

[JohnTan]

How to deposit money in digital bank?

All the banking will be done online or through apps. No physical bank unlike the usual POSB or DBS banks that you see all over.

 

[syed putra]

After all that they only got cash of usd4.5 bil

The merger with the special purpose acquisition company (Spac) of investment firm Altimeter Capital Management is expected to provide up to US$4.5 billion in cash proceeds to Grab, the Singapore-headquartered company added in a press statement.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

After all that they only got cash of usd4.5 bil

Grab lost US$988 million in the third quarter of 2021. At this rate, the US$4.5 billion is going to last them only 1 year.
And Grab is years away from being profitable.

W.I.L.L. N.E.E.D. M.O.R.E. M.O.N.E.Y.

 

[IamHandsome]

How to deposit money in digital bank?

give me your id and password, I will show you how

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Grab shares lost over a third of their value on the first day of trade on the Nasdaq.

S'pore had new billionaire for a few hours before Grab shares slid in US debut​

Grab co-founder Anthony Tan's stake, initially worth more than a billion dollars, ended at US$725 million (S$992 million). PHOTO: REUTERS


DEC 3, 2021


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 by a South-east Asian company. Singapore investment company Temasek, BlackRock and Fidelity International are among those that joined the Pipe.
The timing for going public, though, was not optimal. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely hampered ride-hailing businesses, and the Omicron variant is causing new limits on travel. Grab's home country of Singapore banned entry from seven African nations last week, and the Government said on Thursday that it had detected two imported cases of Omicron.
It had already been a turbulent year for Grab. Its merger with Altimeter Growth Corp, announced in April, got delayed due to an audit of the past three years' accounts, sending Altimeter shares for a wild ride. At the same time, the Spac boom that has attracted billions of dollars in the past couple of years has shown signs of easing amid increased regulatory scrutiny.

Mr Tan, whose great-grandfather was a taxi driver, was inspired to start Grab while working on his Master of Business Administration at Harvard Business School more than a decade ago. He gave up his family's business, one of the biggest auto distributors in Malaysia, and instead started a taxi-hailing service then known as MyTeksi with his Harvard classmate, Ms Tan Hooi Ling.
The project was later relocated to Singapore after raising money for a regional expansion and was rebranded as Grab in 2016. The company now also does food delivery, online payments and financial services.
Due to Grab's share-class structure, Mr Tan has 60.4 per cent voting rights even though he owns just 2.2 per cent of the company. If he fully exercises his stock options, his voting rights will increase to 66.11 per cent, according to a recent filing.
Even with today's slide, the deal has created considerable wealth for other key executives of the Singapore company. The holdings of Ms Tan, the co-founder, are now worth US$224 million, while president Ming Maa's are worth US$126 million.




But it is SoftBank Group, which poured about US$3 billion into Grab through a series of investments starting in 2014, that has made the most from the listing. Its 18.6 per cent holding is currently worth US$6.1 billion. Uber Technologies and Didi Chuxing Technology have stakes worth US$4.7 billion and US$2.5 billion respectively.
While Grab has generated wealth, its loss widened to US$988 million in the third quarter from US$621 million in the same period last year as revenue declined about 9 per cent to US$157 million. The increase in losses was mainly driven by non-cash expenses, and a "significant portion" of such costs should drop after the business combination.
The ongoing pandemic also took a toll on Grab's operations as demand for mobility services dwindled amid stricter lockdowns in Vietnam and restrictions across the region. Moreover, the company is facing growing competition after its Indonesian rival, Gojek, merged with e-commerce provider PT Tokopedia. GoTo, the combined entity, is preparing for an initial public offering at home and in the United States next year.
But Mr Tan remains confident that things will get better for Grab as more people get vaccinated in the region and opt to pursue the strategy of living with Covid-19.
"We are confident about our business," he said in an interview on Thursday.
The business "is tracking well" in terms of meeting this year's target of gross merchandise value of US$15 billion to US$15.5 billion, he added.

 

[Patriotmissile]

Maybe the stock less than 1 buck can consider.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Grab's loss swells to $1.5 billion in Q4; shares lose nearly $30 billion since listing​

Grab has racked up losses since its founding and has yet to prove it can reach profitability. PHOTO: ST FILE

Mar 4, 2022

SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG, REUTERS) - Grab Holdings, South-east Asia's No. 1 ride-hailing and delivery company, reported a loss that almost doubled from a year ago after it spent more on incentives to lure drivers and customers as the pandemic eased.
The Singapore-based firm's fourth-quarter net loss swelled to US$1.1 billion (S$1.5 billion) from US$635 million, also hurt by non-cash interest costs and expenses related to its public listing, it said on Thursday (March 3). Analysts estimated a loss of US$645 million on average.
Revenue for the quarter ended Dec 31 fell 44 per cent to US$122 million, affected by the incentives offered to users and drivers.
Grab - which counts SoftBank Group and Uber Technologies as its two biggest shareholders - has struggled to gain a steady footing since it became a publicly listed company in the United States through a US$40 billion merger with a blank-cheque company in December.
Grab shares plunged 37 per cent on Thursday after posting its results, its biggest sell-off ever, as roughly 115 million shares changed hands, more than four times the average over the past month.
Since its debut, the stock has sunk 63 per cent, placing it among the Nasdaq Composite Index’s worst performers over that stretch. The tailspin has wiped out US$22 billion (S$29.85 billion) from Grab's market capitalisation.
It was also the worst performer in the De-Spac Index on Thursday as the basket of former special-purpose acquisition companies dropped 5.4 per cent to a record low.

Grab has racked up losses since its founding and has yet to prove it can reach profitability. Its fortunes have ebbed and flowed along with Covid-19 infection rates and restrictions, which affect demand for rides and meal deliveries.
In all of 2021, its loss widened to US$3.4 billion from US$2.6 billion the previous year. Gross merchandise value (GMV), the sum of transactions across its platforms, totalled US$16.1 billion compared with its projection of US$15 billion to US$15.5 billion.
As the pandemic has weighed on ride-hailing demand, Grab has expanded its food delivery business to drive user growth. The online grocery market in South-east Asia is expected to almost triple to US$11.9 billion in 2025 from US$4.1 billion in 2020, according to Euromonitor International.

But while spending by customers on Grab's platform is increasing, the growth is not yet translating to earnings.
Average spend per user - GMV per monthly transaction user - on Grab's platform grew 23 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier. But revenue booked from delivery last quarter was just US$1 million.
Grab deducts incentives that it offers to drivers and consumers from sales, and its quarterly revenue number fluctuates wildly depending on how much it spends on such efforts.
Grab spent US$443.3 million on delivery incentives in the quarter, almost double from a year earlier.
Its total spending on incentives more than doubled to US$583.5 million in the fourth quarter. For 2021 as a whole, incentive spending soared to US$1.78 billion from US$1.24 billion the previous year.
"We did not expect Grab to spend on such huge incentives," LightStream Research analyst Shifara Samsudeen said in a report published on Smartkarma. This implies that the company is "struggling to grow its business and profitability seems like a tall order from Grab".
Grab chief financial officer Peter Oey said in a statement on Thursday: "We plan to be judicious and disciplined in allocating capital, as we double down on the long-term growth opportunities of our on-demand, advertising and financial services businesses."
Grab, founded by Mr Anthony Tan and Ms Tan Hooi Ling, has long been viewed as one of the most promising growth companies in South-east Asia.
But among Grab's challenges is intensifying competition, including from Sea, the region's biggest Internet company. More directly, its Indonesian ride-hailing rival, Gojek, has merged with e-commerce provider PT Tokopedia to become GoTo. The combined entity is preparing for an initial public offering at home and in the US this year.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Grab could face class action suits in US following recent share price dive​

Grab's CEO Anthony Tan (left) and co-founder Tan Hooi Ling (right) with Nasdaq APAC chairman Robert McCooey at the Nasdaq bell-ringing ceremony on Dec 2, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

Choo Yun Ting
Business Correspondent

Mar 8, 2022

SINGAPORE - Nasdaq-listed super-app Grab could face class action lawsuits, with several United States law firms calling for shareholders to contact them to investigate claims on their behalf.
The mounting of such investigations, which is fairly commonplace for listed firms in the US, comes after Grab's shares crashed last week, falling about 37 per cent on March 3 after it announced a fourth-quarter net loss of US$1.1 billion (S$1.5 billion).
Its results came amid a worse-than-expected drop in revenue, due to higher incentives being paid out to attract drivers and consumers.
Singapore-headquartered Grab's shares last closed at US$3.36 on Monday (March 7), a far cry from the US$13.06 it reached on the day of its listing last December.
At least eight law firms have announced their intention to investigate Grab for matters such as false and misleading statements, possible fraud and other violations of US federal securities laws.
Grab declined to comment when contacted by The Straits Times.
Professor Lawrence Loh, director of the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore Business School, noted that listed firms in the US regularly face class action suits in a variety of matters, including possible violations of securities laws.

"In recent years, there are, in particular, class action suits against non-US issuers, especially those from China. The trend for class action suits is primarily driven by the permissibility of contingency fee arrangements, where the lawyer receives a pre-agreed percentage of the awarded damages," he said.
In addition, there are many law firms that specialise in class action suits for securities laws, and actively monitor unusual stock losses and seek shareholders who incurred significant damages to lead the suits, Prof Loh added.
In stock drop lawsuits, lawyers seize on a plunge in stock price as evidence that a company failed to be forthcoming about looming bad news.

Calls for investors to mount securities class action lawsuits are fairly common in the US, even if most cases do not make it to court.
Shareholder rights litigation company Schall Law Firm is also similarly focusing on whether Grab issued false and/or misleading statements or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors.
Securities litigation practice Pomerantz Law Firm, meanwhile, is investigating whether Grab and its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or unlawful business practices, it said in a release dated March 6.
Pomerantz had also last month called for shareholders of Sea to contact the firm, announcing its intent to investigate the Singapore-based tech giant for similar reasons. It is among a number of US law firms that regularly puts out calls for investors to contact them for investigation into listed firms.
According to statistics from Stanford Law School's Securities Class Action Clearinghouse database, 211 securities class action cases were filed in federal and state courts last year, lower than the 319 cases filed in 2020.

So far, this year, 35 cases have been filed.
The number of filings involving special purpose acquisition companies (Spacs) also rose significantly, in line with the rise of Spac-related mergers last year.
In class action suits, there are generally one or more lead plaintiffs, who represent the group of plaintiffs, or in the case of Grab, the group of investors. The lead plaintiffs are typically those with the largest losses and with the most incentive to get a higher settlement.
If a settlement is reached, the lawyers usually take a percentage of the settlement amount, with the lead plaintiffs next, and normally getting paid a higher share than other members, followed by the rest of the members of the class.
Prof Loh highlighted that Grab should always be ready to defend its actions and disclosure of information rigorously in the course of its business, and not just because of potential class action suits.
"The (firm's next) steps will have to depend on the specific contentions in each of the class action suits that may arise, but one thing is clear: there is certainly much gripe about the heavy share price drops after the Spac listing."

 

[syed putra]

So why airasia going the same route as grab? Food delivery and cab biz.