Grab To Go Public At Colossal $40 Billion Valuation

Grab, Southeast Asia’s biggest technology platform, announced on Tuesday (April 13) that it will merge with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Altimeter to go public, Reuters reported, citing sources.

The merger will give the ride-hailing and delivery giant a valuation close to $40 billion based on a proforma equity value, sources told Reuters.

In what would be the largest SPAC merger in history, Grab’s deal with Altimeter includes a $4 billion private investment in public equity (PIPE) from Fidelity International, Janus Henderson and other Asian investors, the sources said, per the report. Grab would also receive about $4.5 billion in cash from the deal.

Grab’s planned New York City listing is considered a boost for Singapore’s reputation in the technology sector. Launched in 2012 as a ride-hail startup, it has since evolved into a so-called super-app, offering food delivery, financial services, and more.

The tech platform saw revenues soar 70 percent last year as the pandemic fueled people’s appetites for take-out, grocery delivery, and other digital services. The company has said that it expects the food delivery unit of its business to break even by the end of this year.

Grab first started pondering a public listing in January after its deal to merge with Indonesian rival Gojek fell apart. The price, size and date of a possible deal had not yet been determined at that point, but there already murmurings that it could be the biggest IPO ever made by a Southeast Asian company on a foreign exchange.

Backed by Softbank, Uber, Toyota, and others, Grab founder Anthony Tan will get about 2 percent of the listed equity. The Singapore-headquartered Grab had a 2020 valuation of about $16 billion but has not yet turned a profit.

Based in San Francisco, Altimeter has two SPACs and manages about $16 billion. It typically goes after promising technology startups to take them public.