The global pandemic has pushed many businesses out of the market. As for the major players, the pandemic affected almost every major business corporations in some way. Grab, Southeast Asia’s largest ride-hailing service is no different. In a new turn of events, reports have surfaced regarding Alibaba being in talks to invest in Grab. The amount to be invested is approximately $3 billion.
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The investor “Alibaba”
The Chinese Conglomerate hopes to become the sole investor in this regard. According to Bloomberg, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will partially focus on this potential investment in stocks represented by Grab.
Currently, Uber Technologies Ltd. owns a percentage of the stocks of Grab. But these speculations have not been answered yet by any of the three parties. Grab declined to answer anything related to the investment talks. On the other hand, Alibaba and Uber Technologies were unavailable for any confirmation of the potential ongoing negotiations.
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In March of 2018, Uber took hold of 27.5 percent of Grab’s stocks. The ride-sharing service made the move following their decision of handing over Southeast Asian operations to Grab. As the pandemic hit the globe, the Southeast Asian market received a huge blow, almost in every industry. As a result, in April of this year,
Uber voiced impairment charge concerns. According to Uber, it expects a charge of $2.2 billion against Grab’s minority equity investments. The company announced this in regard to the carrying value of some of Grab’s minority equity. As a result of COVID-19, the impact on the estimated value for each of these entities was substantial.
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The valuation of Grab is $14 billion at the moment. The company has expanded to mobile payment services, food delivery, and financial services in the last few years. With SoftBank Group Corp 9984.T as their designated backer, the company has branched out even before the pandemic hit.
But with a slew of COVID-19, Grab cut costs reducing staff numbers by 5 percent. The latest announcement of Alibaba’s potential investment might just turn things around for Grab.
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