Grab sheds light on takeover deal
27 Mar 2018|1,857 views
After weeks of speculation and both parties remaining tight-lipped about the deal, Grab, a regional firm headquartered here, took over American rival Uber's South East Asian business yesterday for an undisclosed sum. Uber remained unavailable for comment, but Grab answered The Straits Times' questions about the acquisition.
How much did Grab pay for Uber's regional business?
We are not disclosing specifics of the deal. Broadly, Grab will acquire Uber's operations and assets in South East Asia, including its transport and food businesses. Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Grab, and its Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab's board.
How big is the South East Asian market for services such as rides, food, payments and loans?
There are more than 620 million people across South East Asia. Many of them don't have credit cards, but they do have mobile phones. The entire region is on the cusp of a digital transformation. According to a recent report by Google/Temasek, there were 330 million monthly active Internet users by end-2017, adding over 70 million new users since 2015 at a compounded annual growth rate of 13 percent.
Today, Grab reaches one in eight people. Our business is more advanced than just ride-hailing. We have a significant and important opportunity to become the leading mobile platform that everyone in South East Asia uses for their daily lives.
How will the new entity operate in Singapore, where the Government is already watching to prevent a monopoly from emerging?
The transportation landscape in Singapore and South East Asia continues to be highly dynamic, with multiple innovations and platforms emerging constantly. Passengers have plenty of transport options... We believe that the merger with Uber will enable a more efficient transportation network.
How long will Grab allow Uber-branded products to continue?
Our priority is to continue serving our passengers and drivers, and minimise any disruption for them. Both platforms will operate simultaneously for the immediate term to ensure there is sufficient transition time for interested Uber drivers to be on-boarded onto the Grab platform.
After two weeks - until 8th April - the Uber app will close in South East Asia, and passengers and drivers can choose to use Grab for rides. The UberEats app will run until the end of May. All restaurants can use the new GrabFood Merchant app, and can take orders as per normal using the GrabFood Merchant app.
What will happen to Lion City Rentals - an Uber-owned firm operating in Singapore, which taxi giant ComfortDelGro has agreed to buy 51 percent of?
The acquisition does not cover Lion City Rentals. As for Uber's current fixed fare partnership with ComfortDelGro, we remain open to partnerships and to find a solution that is in the best interest of the market and our users. We will be discussing possibilities of having Lion City Rentals as a fleet partner of GrabRentals - a car rental marketplace comprising more than 50 fleet partners.
GrabRentals' asset-light partnership model is different from Lion City Rentals' approach. Our rental marketplace pools together all the offerings from our fleet partners to provide the widest variety of high-quality vehicles at affordable rates for our driver-partners.
After weeks of speculation and both parties remaining tight-lipped about the deal, Grab, a regional firm headquartered here, took over American rival Uber's South East Asian business yesterday for an undisclosed sum. Uber remained unavailable for comment, but Grab answered The Straits Times' questions about the acquisition.
How much did Grab pay for Uber's regional business?
We are not disclosing specifics of the deal. Broadly, Grab will acquire Uber's operations and assets in South East Asia, including its transport and food businesses. Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Grab, and its Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab's board.
How big is the South East Asian market for services such as rides, food, payments and loans?
There are more than 620 million people across South East Asia. Many of them don't have credit cards, but they do have mobile phones. The entire region is on the cusp of a digital transformation. According to a recent report by Google/Temasek, there were 330 million monthly active Internet users by end-2017, adding over 70 million new users since 2015 at a compounded annual growth rate of 13 percent.
Today, Grab reaches one in eight people. Our business is more advanced than just ride-hailing. We have a significant and important opportunity to become the leading mobile platform that everyone in South East Asia uses for their daily lives.
How will the new entity operate in Singapore, where the Government is already watching to prevent a monopoly from emerging?
The transportation landscape in Singapore and South East Asia continues to be highly dynamic, with multiple innovations and platforms emerging constantly. Passengers have plenty of transport options... We believe that the merger with Uber will enable a more efficient transportation network.
How long will Grab allow Uber-branded products to continue?
Our priority is to continue serving our passengers and drivers, and minimise any disruption for them. Both platforms will operate simultaneously for the immediate term to ensure there is sufficient transition time for interested Uber drivers to be on-boarded onto the Grab platform.
After two weeks - until 8th April - the Uber app will close in South East Asia, and passengers and drivers can choose to use Grab for rides. The UberEats app will run until the end of May. All restaurants can use the new GrabFood Merchant app, and can take orders as per normal using the GrabFood Merchant app.
What will happen to Lion City Rentals - an Uber-owned firm operating in Singapore, which taxi giant ComfortDelGro has agreed to buy 51 percent of?
The acquisition does not cover Lion City Rentals. As for Uber's current fixed fare partnership with ComfortDelGro, we remain open to partnerships and to find a solution that is in the best interest of the market and our users. We will be discussing possibilities of having Lion City Rentals as a fleet partner of GrabRentals - a car rental marketplace comprising more than 50 fleet partners.
GrabRentals' asset-light partnership model is different from Lion City Rentals' approach. Our rental marketplace pools together all the offerings from our fleet partners to provide the widest variety of high-quality vehicles at affordable rates for our driver-partners.
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