Grab’s $40 Billion SPAC IPO Postponed Until Later This Year

Singapore-headquartered super app Grab is postponing its $40 billion initial public offering (IPO) via a merger with the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Altimeter Growth Corp until the fourth quarter of this year, Reuters reported on Wednesday (June 9).

The delay is over details needed to satisfy requirements for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Grab is finishing its financial audit for 2018, 2019 and 2020 and is also working with the SEC for pre-clearance for accounting policies and financial disclosures, per the report.

Because the company is finalizing its financial audit and working with the SEC, Grab’s financial information for those periods remain subject to further review and revision, the company said in a statement to Reuters.

Grab’s statement also indicated that its consolidated gross merchandise value (GMV) in the first quarter of 2021 was up 5.2 percent to $3.6 billion compared to the same period in 2020.

Since Grab’s SPAC deal closed in April, Altimeter was trading just above its record low after dropping 28 percent last month. The price drop could be due to Grab’s valuation and possibly because of the overall perception of SPACs, which have seen their share of critics. PYMNTS reported in April that Grab would go public on the Nasdaq.

As Southeast Asia’s biggest technology platform, Grab is an example of how super apps are growing. Grab has the largest valuation so far in the SPAC space, and could raise about $4.5 billion in cash proceeds. 

Grab works in the key markets of food delivery, ride-hailing, digital wallet payments and financial services, and said it anticipates its market will grow to more than $180 billion by 2025.

Before the pandemic and the SPAC craze, PYMNTS’ Karen Webster wrote that the super app concept has legs. “As these super apps evolve, smartphones and their operating systems will become a means to an end and no longer the end to the means – important, but less so as more connected devices emerge that are capable of providing access to those apps,” she said.