Singapore-headquartered super app Grab will list on NASDAQ on Thursday (Dec 2) after Altimeter Growth Corp’s investors approved the merger between the two companies.
In a statement, Altimeter Growth Corp announced that its shareholders approved the business combination with Grab at an extraordinary meeting of shareholders on Tuesday.
Shareholder redemptions were effectively 0 percent, at 0.02 percent. Complete official results of the vote and shareholder redemption will be included in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by Altimeter Growth with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said.
“As previously disclosed, the transaction is expected to close Dec 1, 2021, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions. Following the close of the business combination, Grab’s Class A common stock is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq on December 2, 2021 under the ticker symbol ‘GRAB’,” Altimeter Growth said.
Grab announced the merger with Altimeter Growth in April. Grab initially targeted July for its US listing but has later postponed to the fourth quarter.
Often dubbed as the most valuable tech start-up in Southeast Asia, Grab’s listing is expected to be the largest-ever US equity offering by a Southeast Asian company as the deal values Grab at approximately $39.6 billion.
The transaction is expected to provide up to approximately $4.5 billion in cash proceeds to Grab. Proceeds include more than $4 billion of fully committed private investment in public equity (PIPE) led by $750 million from funds managed by Altimeter Capital Management.
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 Bhd, and Temasek.
Founded in 2012 as a taxi-hailing service in Malaysia, Grab offers ride-hailing, food delivery, and e-payment services via its one-stop super app. It operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Myanmar.
It is also worth noting that Grab acquired ride-hailing company Uber’s operations in Southeast Asia in 2018. Uber holds a 27.5 percent stake in Grab (Uber will hold 14.3 percent after the SPAC deal). China’s ride-hailing giant Didi also started investing in Grab in 2015. Didi is slated to own 7.5 percent when the SPAC deal goes through, Forbes recently reported. Grab’s notable backers include GGV Capital, SoftBank and Toyota, among others.
Last month, Grab said its revenue down 9 percent to $157 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2021 (Q3 2021), as a result of the decline in mobility due to the severe lockdowns in Vietnam. Loss for the period grew by $366 million to $988 million.
Grab inks SPAC deal with Altimeter Growth as it readies US IPO at $39.6B valuation