Southeast Asia ride-hailing and food-delivery company Grab(NASDAQ:GRAB) went public today to a fairly muted reaction from investors. The Singapore-based company first piqued investors’ attention with its array of super apps across financial, delivery and transportation services. Despite opening at $12.40 this morning, GRAB stock has steadily declined, currently sitting at $8.75 at market close, more than 20% down on the day.
Grab is one of many highly anticipated companies that have gone public via special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) mergers. Indeed, it’s been a packed field for SPAC mergers this season. More and more companies opt to go public via SPAC nowadays, as it has the potential to save tremendous amounts of time and money in their initial public offerings (IPOs). Not every company thrives off of it, however, as is evident this afternoon.
Grab Chief Executive Anthony Tan commented onGRAB’s downtrend today. “The price makes no difference to me. I’m going to celebrate tonight and get back to work tomorrow,” Tan said.
So, what else should investors know about GRAB stock today?
8 Things to Know as GRAB Stock Slides Today
- GRAB’s backdoor listing comes after an agreement with U.S. tech SPAC, Altimeter Growth Corp.
- The deal saw GRAB raise $4.5 billion in funding, including $750 million from Altimeter.
- Grab is a high-growth contender. Some expect the Southeast Asia digital economy to double by 2025.
- The company began as a Malaysia-based taxi app in 2012. Since then, it’s expanded into various other industries and mobile services.
- Additionally, GRAB has support from some big players. Indeed, Toyota(NYSE:TM), Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) and Uber(NYSE:UBER) each have a stake in the company.
- Unfortunately, Grab had less-than stellar revenue numbers to report this past quarter. Revenue was down 9% year-over-year, mostly attributed to Covid-19-related lockdowns across Southeast Asia, especially Vietnam.
- However, Grab is aiming for profitability by 2023. At that point, the burgeoning Southeast Asian internet economy is expected to have grown substantially.
- The super apps are operational in more than 465 cities across eight countries and offer everything from food-delivery to investment services.