SPAC-pedia | Grab will go public today through the largest SPAC merger

Southeast Asia's digital tech unicorn Grab will start trading on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol "GRAB" on December 2nd after Altimeter Growth Corp’s shareholders approved the merger with it.

According to a SEC document, the transaction—which will be the world's largest SPAC deal—will give Grab a valuation of $40 billion.

Grab will receive about $4.5 billion in cash, which includes $4 billion in a private investment in public equity arrangement.

Investors in the PIPE include funds and accounts managed or advised by BlackRock, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley Investment Management) and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., as well as Fidelity International, Fidelity Management and Research LLC, Janus Henderson Investors, Mubadala, Nuveen, Permodalan Nasional Berhad and Temasek.

Business Overview
SoftBank-backed Grab, founded in 2012, is a Southeast Asia's leading superapp based on GMV in 2020 in each of food deliveries, mobility and the e-wallets segment of financial services, according to Euromonitor.

The company enables millions of people each day to access its driver- and merchant-partners to order food or groceries, send packages, hail a ride or taxi, pay for online purchases or access services such as lending, insurance, wealth management and telemedicine, all through a single “everyday everything” app.

Grab operates across these service sectors in over 400 cities in eight countries in the Southeast Asia region – Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The company is the dominant player in the region of about 650 million people, though competition is intensifying from rivals such as Gojek, which merged with e-commerce company PT Tokopedia to bulk up.

It is also competing against Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda and Deliveroo Plc as well as new entrants such as AirAsia Group Bhd. in the region.

The company started out as a taxi-app, but it has been extending its services over time and expanding into grocery deliveries and financial services, as the pandemic accelerated the adoption of e-commerce and other digital platforms.

Earlier this month, GrabMart signed partnerships with supermarket and grocery chains across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

At the same time, it tied up with e-commerce firm Lazada to provide same-day delivery services to consumers in Singapore via GrabExpress.

Financial Performance
Grab generated revenue of $78 million and $396 million in the six months ended June 30, 2020 and June 30, 2021, respectively, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 406%.

Its revenue was $(845) million and $469 million in 2019 and 2020, respectively, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 155%.

According to Grab's final Form F-4, its revenue growth in 2020 and the six months ended June 30, 2021 was driven by an increase in GMV. Its GMV was $5.9 billion and $7.5 billion in the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, representing a YoY growth rate of 28%.

The revenue growth in 2020 was also driven by a decrease in partner and consumer incentives from $2.4 billion in 2019 to $1.2 billion in 2020.

Its net loss was $(1.5) billion and $(1.5)billion in the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively. Net loss in 2019 and 2020 was $(4.0) billion and $(2.7) billion, respectively, representing a year-over-year growth of 31%.

Altimeter Growth Corp.(AGC.US) is a newly formed blank check company, an affiliate of Altimeter Capital Management which is a technology-focused investment firm.

Altimeter Capital has a proven track record of successfully investing in leading technology companies in both the private and public markets. According to its Form F-4,some of its prior investments include Expedia, Zillow, Facebook, Uber, AirBnB, ByteDance, AppDynamics, MongoDB, Okta, Twilio, Unity, and Snowflake.

Through the business combination, Grab could leverage Altimeter Capital’s investment team's capabilities, relationships, network, and deal pipeline to support it in the identification and diligence of potential targets.