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SoftBank-backed Grab agrees to deal to go public in world’s largest SPAC merger


The_King

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Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing giant Grab announced Tuesday that it’s set to go public through a SPAC merger with Altimeter Growth Corp., in a deal that values the company at $39.6 billion — the largest blank-check merger to date.

Grab says it intends to list on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “GRAB” following the deal’s completion.

 

SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are shell companies or blank-check companies set up for the purpose of raising capital to acquire private companies. A SPAC listing bypasses Wall Street’s traditional IPO process.

As part of the mega-deal, SoftBank-backed Grab will receive about $4.5 billion in cash, which includes $4 billion in a private investment in public equity (PIPE), managed by BlackRock, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global fund and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek. PIPEs are mechanisms for companies to raise capital from a select group of investors that make the final market debut possible through their financing.

Grab — most recently ranked No. 16 on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list — delivers an array of digital services such as transportation, food delivery, hotel bookings, online banking, mobile payments and insurance services from its app. The Singapore-based company has operations throughout most of Southeast Asia, and serves more than 187 million users in over 350 cities across eight countries.

While SPACs have become a hot investment vehicle on Wall Street, they’re also gaining traction in Asia with six regional-focused SPAC companies that have collectively raised $2.7 billion thus far in 2021.

But in the first quarter this year, capital raised by blank-check firms like Altimeter has already outpaced 2020′s total issuance. It’s not only drawn the attention of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but also investors who are fearful of a market bubble.

 

Still, new deals continue to flood the market — more than 100 in March alone, according to SPAC Research.

While Grab’s merger remains record-setting, Boston-based biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks, ranked No. 44 on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, is said to be considering an equally-massive $20 billion blank-check merger of its own, according to Bloomberg.

 

 

Throughout the pandemic, Southeast Asia saw a surge in the use of digital services like e-commerce, food delivery and online payment. As many as 40 million people in six countries across the region — Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand — came online for the first time in 2020, according to a report from Google, Temasek Holdings and Bain & Company.

Still, Covid-19 has forced regional private market decacorns (start-ups valued at more than $10 billion) to cut staff and rethink what will define a dominant “super app” suite of on-demand services. It’s also intensified the competitive landscape in an already saturated market that’s proven difficult to turn a profit.

After a period of intense and expensive competition by Uber to dominate rideshare in many markets, Indonesian rival Gojek sold its Southeast Asia business to Grab three years ago in return for Uber receiving a stake in the company.

In January, Reuters reported that Grab’s net revenue had grown 70% year over year, recovering to pre-pandemic levels with its ride-hailing business breaking even in all operating markets, including its largest, Indonesia.

Grab and Gojek were reportedly close to finalizing a merger of their own late last year.

Reuters reported that Gojek — which is ranked No. 10 on last year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list — is now in advanced talks with Indonesian e-commerce leader Tokopedia for an $18 billion merger, ahead of a potential dual listing in Jakarta and the U.S.

 

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  • The_King changed the title to SoftBank-backed Grab agrees to deal to go public in world’s largest SPAC merger

the reason why grab use spac is becos dont need to pass so many regulations.

 

in other words, its buyer beware.

 

using uber as a gauge, i dont think grab is anywhere profitable.

 

wahahahahaha

 

https://investor.uber.com/news-events/news/press-release-details/2021/Uber-Announces-Results-for-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020/default.aspx

 

Full Year 2020 Financial and Operational Highlights

 

 

Year Ended December 31,

 

 

 

 

(In millions, except percentages)

 

2019

 

2020

 

% Change

 

% Change
(Constant Currency (1))

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trips

 

6,904

 

5,025

 

(27)

%

 

 

Gross Bookings

 

$

65,001

 

 

$

57,897

 

 

(11)

%

 

(9)

%

Revenue

 

$

13,000

 

 

$

11,139

 

 

(14)

%

 

(13)

%

Net loss attributable to Uber Technologies, Inc. (2)

 

$

(8,506

)

 

$

(6,768

)

 

20

%

 

 

Mobility Adjusted EBITDA

 

$

2,071

 

 

$

1,169

 

 

(44)

%

 

 

Delivery Adjusted EBITDA

 

$

(1,372

)

 

$

(873

)

 

36

%

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA (1)

 

$

(2,725

)

 

$

(2,528

)

 

7

%

 

 

(1) See “Definitions of Non-GAAP Measures” and “Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measure” sections herein for an explanation and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures used throughout this release.
(2) Net loss attributable to Uber Technologies, Inc. includes stock-based compensation expense of $4.6 billion in 2019 and $827 million in 2020.

 

 

 

 

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53 minutes ago, Bigbird said:

This is reverse take over listing aka backdoor?

 

:hehe:

 

 

 

53 minutes ago, Bigbird said:

So Softbank wants to quickie cash out ah?

 

rto and spac have same result but different execution route.

 

rto is a new investor buying a listed shell company via asset injection while spac is a fund raising exercise to buy an existing unlisted biz.

 

so spac can be even faster and less regulated than rto.

 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/reversetakeover.asp#:~:text=A reverse takeover (RTO) is,control a publicly-traded company.

 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/spac.asp#:~:text=A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) is a company with,have been around for decades.

 

and yes, softbank want to have a quickie with the many kgk investors out there.

 

wahahahhaha

 

 

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12 hours ago, Bigbird said:

Has Uber ever been profitable for investors?  

 

The founders definitely milk it big time!!!

 

if this company make it past ipo, it would have became the biggest con job ever after uber.

 

an office leasing company masquerading as a tech company.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/wework-ipo-fiasco-adam-neumann-explained-events-timeline-2019-9?r=US&IR=T

 

now it is taking the spac route as well.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/wework-spac-bowx-merger-public-2021-3?r=US&IR=T

 

WeWork has been a circus – but it still has a chance to be a great business

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I seen many co-working space, only 1 or 2 locally has a good ecosystem!

 

Most are just office rentals like those that has been around for decades Wangs, Regus, Servcorp.......

 

They are just categorizing themselves for higher valuation! :hehe:

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1 hour ago, Bigbird said:

I seen many co-working space, only 1 or 2 locally has a good ecosystem!

 

Most are just office rentals like those that has been around for decades Wangs, Regus, Servcorp.......

 

They are just categorizing themselves for higher valuation! :hehe:

 

just like how grab is positioning itself as a tech company when the truth is that it is just a cab hailing company in disguise.

 

smlj super app is a con story if the company cannot make money.

 

https://agiletech.medium.com/super-app-strategy-how-to-make-a-profit-from-super-apps-e4d1f2c865c2

 

i like how grab's md answered the question of profitability.

 

During a call with reporters today, when asked if Grab has a timeline for reaching profitability, Reuben Lai, senior managing director at Grab Financial Group, said there isn’t one yet, but “research has shown that there is a real demand for the products we are launching today. What we really want to do is focus on consumers and make sure we deliver products they use. We think profitability and sustainability will follow.”

 

https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/03/grab-launches-new-consumer-financial-services-including-micro-investments-and-loans/

 

in other words, grab is also not sure if the money poured into developing the app will have the return.

 

the only way for grab to make money is to move into higher margin business lines like micro-financing but the issue is whether micro-financing to less credit worthy consumers is profitable as this requires a huge database, which wepay and alipay accumulated in the last decade, to keep defaults at manageable level.

 

https://medium.com/@annoleksyuk/super-app-as-the-future-of-fintech-become-a-platform-not-a-solution-802b6f41e9d6

Edited by socrates469bc
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On 4/15/2021 at 9:29 PM, socrates469bc said:

 

just like how grab is positioning itself as a tech company when the truth is that it is just a cab hailing company in disguise.

 

smlj super app is a con story if the company cannot make money.

 

https://agiletech.medium.com/super-app-strategy-how-to-make-a-profit-from-super-apps-e4d1f2c865c2

 

i like how grab's md answered the question of profitability.

 

During a call with reporters today, when asked if Grab has a timeline for reaching profitability, Reuben Lai, senior managing director at Grab Financial Group, said there isn’t one yet, but “research has shown that there is a real demand for the products we are launching today. What we really want to do is focus on consumers and make sure we deliver products they use. We think profitability and sustainability will follow.”

 

https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/03/grab-launches-new-consumer-financial-services-including-micro-investments-and-loans/

 

in other words, grab is also not sure if the money poured into developing the app will have the return.

 

the only way for grab to make money is to move into higher margin business lines like micro-financing but the issue is whether micro-financing to less credit worthy consumers is profitable as this requires a huge database, which wepay and alipay accumulated in the last decade, to keep defaults at manageable level.

 

https://medium.com/@annoleksyuk/super-app-as-the-future-of-fintech-become-a-platform-not-a-solution-802b6f41e9d6

Bluff small kids.

Business is always about money

 

 

 

 

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