The_King Posted June 20, 2023 Share Posted June 20, 2023 SINGAPORE: Singapore-based Grab Holdings, Southeast Asia's leading ride-hailing and food delivery app, is cutting 1,000 jobs or 11 per cent of its workforce, its CEO said on Tuesday (Jun 20), citing the need to manage costs and ensure more affordable services long-term. In a letter sent to employees late on Tuesday and seen by Reuters, chief executive Anthony Tan said the cuts, the biggest since the start of the pandemic, were not "a shortcut to profitability" but a strategic reorganisation to adapt to the business environment. "Change has never been this fast. Technology such as generative AI (artificial intelligence) is evolving at breakneck speed. The cost of capital has gone up, directly impacting the competitive landscape," Tan said in the letter. "We must combine our scale with nimble execution and cost leadership, so that we can sustainably offer even more affordable services and deepen our penetration of the masses." Tan said that even without layoffs, Grab had managed costs and should hit its target for group adjusted EBITDA breakeven this year. The "superapp", founded in 2012, offers deliveries, rides and financial services in eight Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. "We are informing you after office hours for as many of our locations as possible, so you have the space and time to process the news privately," Tan said in his letter, which also laid out measures to cushion the impact of the announcement. These include a severance payment of half a month for every six months of completed service, or based on local statutory guidelines, whichever is higher. There will also be a goodwill payment of an ex-gratia amount determined by Grab for "forgone target bonus and equity". The company said it will also provide career transition and development support in the form of free one-year access to LinkedIn Premium subscription and LinkedIn learning, as well as access to sessions with a professional coach. Tan said that the primary goal of the layoffs was to "strategically reorganise" the company so that it could "move faster, work smarter, and rebalance (its) resources" across its portfolio. "Restructuring thus emerged as a painful but necessary step, to set Grab on the correct trajectory towards our longer-term future," he added. Grab's shares were up 4.7 per cent premarket after Tan's announcement to staff. The stock had climbed as much as 5.6 per cent premarket, extending earlier gains on a Bloomberg News report of the cuts. The layoffs follow a similar move last year by Indonesian tech firm GoTo, which offers rides, e-commerce and financial services. It has undergone strict cost-cutting, including axing 12 per cent of its workforce in 2022. It laid off a further 600 staff in March. Its incoming CEO is planning to head the firm only temporarily and quit after improving profitability, sources told Reuters last week. In May, Grab reported a quarterly loss of US$250 million but said revenue in the first quarter of this year rose 130.3 per cent to US$525 million from a year ago. That same month, Grab said its co-founder Tan Hooi Ling would step down from her operating roles by the end of this year. In February, it issued an upbeat forecast for full-year revenue for 2023 and brought forward its profitability timeline. The US-listed Grab's last job cuts were in 2020, when 360 people were laid off in response to the impact of the pandemic. The company had 11,934 staff as of the end of 2022, including almost 2,000 employees of Jaya Grocer - a Malaysia supermarket chain in which Grab had acquired a majority stake in January 2022. In September last year, it said it had no plans to undertake mass layoffs despite the weak market. In December, Tan told staff the company was freezing most hiring, pay raises for senior managers, as well as cutting travel and expense budgets. Source: Reuters/CNA/zl 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ODACHEK Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 Wah...1000 jiakliaobees? 2 TVB for life... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XianGe Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 When will they sell off? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homelander Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 Why dun cut his gcb? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socrates469bc Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 7 hours ago, ODACHEK said: Wah...1000 jiakliaobees? more jlb than this zheng hu?????? nb, parliment only 94 elected seats but 41 zheng hu mps r holding office holders. song bo, kumgong pappy serfs??????? wahahahahahahahahaha 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XianGe Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 1 hour ago, Homelander said: Why dun cut his gcb? Wonder how much the grab director earn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homelander Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 33 minutes ago, XianGe said: Wonder how much the grab director earn Which director? i think tin peiling should be earning 20-30k 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XianGe Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 27 minutes ago, Homelander said: Which director? i think tin peiling should be earning 20-30k Huat ar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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