Southeast Asian App Grab Debuts On Nasdaq After Largest SPAC Merger

(RTTNews) - Southeast Asia's ride-hailing company Grab made its debut on Nasdaq on Thursday under the ticker GRAB. Grab is the biggest company so far to close a SPAC merger and go public. The company's shares opened at $13.06 apiece, after the closure of the deal with Altimeter Growth Corp, which valued Grab at nearly $40 billion. On their debut, Grab shares were down during trading. The company offers a wide range of digital services like transportation, food delivery, hotel bookings, online banking, mobile payments and insurance services through its app. Known as the "super app", Grab is available in most of South east Asia. It has 187 million users across eight countries.

Commenting on the developments, Altimeter Capital founder and CEO Brad Gerstner, said, "Grab is an iconic, mission-driven and founder-led company that makes a difference in the lives of the people and communities it serves. It has demonstrated durable growth even during the pandemic and is playing a foundational role in the digitization of Southeast Asia."

The Grab deal included a $4 billion private placement led by Altimeter Capital Management as part of PIPE financing, which is process for companies to secure capital from certain investors to make possible their long-awaited market debut. BlackRock, T.Rowe Price Associates, Morgan Stanley Investment Management's Counterpoint Global arm and Janus Henderson Investors are some of the investors in the Grab Nasdaq debut deal.

Talking to CNBC about the Nasdaq debut, Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan said, "We don't view growth and profitability as mutually exclusive. We operate in a market with a large market opportunity and low penetration across our verticals."

GRAB ended Thursday's trading at $8.75, down $2.26 or 20% on the Nasdaq. In after-market trade, the stock is up $0.20 or 1% to $8.88.