Grab’s US listing will happen tomorrow (December 2) after Altimeter Growth Corp’s investors approved the merger between the two companies under a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal, The Straits Times reported. The ASEAN super-app will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker GRAB.
This comes after the proposal was passed at an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday. Altimeter Growth said in a statement that there were virtually no shareholder redemptions, or shareholders voting to receive their investment back. Official voting numbers will be made public after a form is filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
This is not just a huge deal for Singapore-headquartered Grab and its early backers such as Japan’s SoftBank Group and China’s Didi Chuxing, but it’s one of the largest SPAC deals ever recorded, valuing the combined entity at nearly US$40 billion (RM168 billion).
Grab’s merger with Altimeter Growth was announced in April this year, when interest in SPAC deals were high. The merger with the acquisition company, originally targeted for completion in Q3 2021, was delayed because of a financial audit of Grab’s accounts. All the concerns have now been ironed out and it’s a go.
Grab, which started life in Malaysia as a taxi-hailing app called MyTeksi (launched in 2012, remember that?), has since expanded its ride-hailing business to include delivery and digital financial services in more than 400 cities across eight Southeast Asian countries.
While its financials aren’t looking great at the moment due to the pandemic and lockdowns – nett loss widened to US$988 million (RM4.15 billion) in Q3 2021, while revenue fell 9% to US$157 million (RM660 million) – the size of this deal is all about the ASEAN’s promise and Grab’s prominent position in the region.
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