Grab Shares Slump After Mega-SPAC Merger

Grab delivery drivers in Bangkok

Right after completing a history-placing SPAC merger, experience-hailing and delivery app Seize built its trading debut on Thursday, featuring traders an option to wager on the Southeast Asian tech boom.

Shares in Southeast Asia’s top “super-app” opened at $13.06, up 19% from Wednesday, when Seize was trading as its SPAC acquirer, just before slipping 20.5% to near at $8.75. In the extended session, the inventory rose 3.4% to $9.05.

The past day, Get had shut a merger with unique-purpose acquisition business Altimeter Advancement that valued Grab at almost $40 billion, generating it the biggest SPAC deal on report.

Sylvia Jablonski, co-founder and main investment decision officer of Defiance ETFs, told The Wall Road Journal that the stock’s opening-working day volatility could reflect some investors cheering on a popular brand going community just before other people factored in pandemic-associated headwinds for journey providers.

“This is Southeast Asia’s time to shine, and we hope that our entrance into the global community sector will assist bring larger consideration to the large prospect here in the region,” Get CEO Anthony Tan explained in a news launch.

Grab, which was started in 2012, obtained Uber’s Southeast Asia small business in 2018. It has due to the fact expanded into a selection of other expert services, together with foodstuff shipping, digital payments, and even financial solutions, as aspect of its force to build a super-application that will let consumers to do every thing from reserving rides to having out financial loans.

Far more than 25 million individuals now use Seize every single thirty day period to make a transaction, across 465 cities in 8 countries.

“Southeast Asia is amongst the swiftest-escalating locations in the world, with gross items price from the digital overall economy climbing 49% to $174 billion this 12 months from the earlier,” Forbes said.

Grab’s earnings for the third quarter fell 9% to $157 million amid the coronavirus pandemic’s resurgence in Southeast Asia. Its web decline greater to $988 million, up from $621 million. But gross merchandise benefit, a metric that reflects the dollar benefit of transactions from Grab’s providers, rose 32% to $4.04 billion.

As section of the SPAC merger, Seize also elevated a report $4.5 billion in non-public financing from buyers such as Fidelity, BlackRock, and T. Rowe Value.

Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Photos
Seize, Southeast Asia, SPAC, superapp