Singapore's Grab Holdings inks $40-billion deal in record SPAC merger

Ride-hailing giant set to trade on Nasdaq

Grab Holdings, Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup, is going public in the US through a merger with blank-check company Altimeter Growth Corp in what is the largest-ever deal of its kind.
 
The Singapore-based startup is set to have a market value of about $39.6 billion after the combination with the special purpose acquisition company of Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter Capital Manage­ment, the firms said on Tuesday.
 
Grab is raising over $4 billion from investors including BlackRock, Fidelity International and T Rowe Price Group as part of the biggest US equity offering by a Southeast Asian company.
 
The deal would make the ride-hailing and food-delivery giant the first Southeast Asian tech unicorn to go public through a SPAC and give it funds to expand. Grab is trying to take advantage of a US-led SPAC listing boom even though it’s showing signs of slowing amid increased scrutiny by regulators. “This is definitely one of the best internet companies,” Gerstner said.
 
The combined entity’s stock will trade on the Nasdaq in the coming months under the ticker GRAB. Altimeter Capital, which orchestrated the IPO of Altimeter Growth in September, is putting $750 million into the company, about a fifth of the fresh funds raised.

 
That, together with a three-year lockup period for its sponsor shares, indicates Altimeter’s long-term commitment to the company, Grab CEO Anthony Tan said. Altimeter, which manages $15 billion of assets, has also committed as much as $500 million to a contingent investment to be equal to the total amount of redemptions by Altimeter Growth’s shareholders.
 
“From sovereign wealth funds to mutual funds, it is world-class investors who are investing in us,” Tan said.         
 
Grab, the market leader in Southeast Asia for so-called super apps for consumer services, expects its addressable market to expand to more than $180 billion by 2025 from $52 billion in 2020.