Singapore’s ride-hailing super app Grab is going public in New York via a blank check merger with Altimeter Capital in a deal that gives Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup a valuation of about $35 billion, Financial Times reported on Wednesday (April 7).
Grab is set to finalize its merger agreement this week with Altimeter Growth 1, one of Altimeter Capital’s two special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), sources told FT.
The ride-hailing startup founded in 2012 has evolved into a technology platform offering food delivery and payments. The Grab deal with Altimeter is on track to be the largest SPAC merger to date, per FT.
Grab will raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.5 billion via private investment in public equity. Almost $1.2 billion will come from Altimeter, which will “also backstop the sale of any shares in the SPAC by public shareholders when the deal is announced,” sources said, per FT.
Altimeter Growth 1 raised $450 million in 2020 and its share price surged 25 percent, the source told FT. The Silicon Valley venture capital firm manages $15 billion for a mix of private and public technology startups.
Grab has a current valuation of more than $15 billion. The company has so far raised $12 billion and has about $5 billion in cash reserves.
The deal will give Grab founder Anthony Tan about 2 percent of the listed equity, sources told FT.
Some of Grab’s largest investors include SoftBank, Uber and Toyota. The company had been in talks with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley to find a SPAC merger deal.
Altimeter Growth Corp. raised $450 million in an October 2020 IPO. Altimeter Growth Corp. 2 raised $400 million in a January IPO. SPACs notched more than $70 billion so far in 2021, a new record.
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