London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 16, 2025

Grab plunges 21% in biggest Wall Street debut by a Southeast Asian company

Grab plunges 21% in biggest Wall Street debut by a Southeast Asian company

The Southeast Asian unicorn Grab had a rough first day on Wall Street. The Singaporean startup closed down nearly 21% Thursday as it began trading on New York's Nasdaq.

Grab went public by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The deal — in which Grab raised $4.5 billion, and was valued at nearly $40 billion — was the biggest of its kind on record, according to data provider Dealogic. It's also the largest US market debut by a Southeast Asian company.

The previous record was held by an Indonesian satellite company, which raised nearly $1.2 billion in 1994, according to data from Refinitiv.

Under the deal, Grab merged with Altimeter Growth Corp (AGC), a SPAC launched by Altimeter Capital, a US investment firm. Shares in the company, now trading under the ticker symbol "GRAB," opened up Thursday nearly 20% above Altimeter's closing price the day before.

But they soon reversed direction, closing at $8.75 per share.

Grab took a relatively unconventional road to market, albeit one that has gained popularity over the past year. Combining with SPACs used to be sneered at on Wall Street, but recently a slew of major companies have chosen to take the same route, including Playboy, DraftKings, and electric vehicle startups Lucid Motors and Arrival.

SPACs are shell companies with limited or no operating assets. They usually go public solely to raise money from investors that is then used to buy existing businesses.

Regulators, though, have stepped up scrutiny of the process. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, has tightened its accounting guidance for SPACs, while lawmakers in Congress held a hearing on the matter.

That attention has caused SPAC activity to plummet, and more regulation could be on the way: Bills to tighten rules around SPACs are currently making their way through Congress. One proposal would compel blank check firms to disclose to retail investors the risks of backing shell companies, while another bill could boost their liability for making false or misleading forward-looking statements.

A 'super app'


Through its deal, Grab raised funds from investors including Fidelity, BlackRock, T. Rowe Price, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and Singapore government investment arm Temasek.

Co-founders Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan rang the exchange's opening bell in Singapore on Thursday night in a ceremony including Grab drivers and merchants.

The Malaysian entrepreneurs, who share a surname but are unrelated, founded Grab in 2012. It quickly soared to become Southeast Asia's most valuable private company.

Grab acquired Uber's Southeast Asia business in 2018, and has since expanded into a variety of other services, including food delivery, digital payments and even financial services.

In recent years, the firm has cast itself as a "super app," letting users do everything from booking rides to taking out insurance and loans. More than 25 million people use the app each month to make a transaction, across 465 cities in eight countries.

In an interview Thursday, chief financial officer Peter Oey said that the company would use the proceeds from the listing to double down on its existing playbook.

"We're just getting started in Southeast Asia," he told CNN Business.

Oey argues that there is still "huge opportunity" to grow the firm's core businesses at home. Grocery delivery services in the region are still in their infancy, he said. Meanwhile, ride-hailing in the region is far less established than in China, he added.

Oey also did not rule out the possibility of doing more mergers and acquisitions, noting that "strategic opportunities will come up."

Grab has previously said that it chose to go public in the United States, rather than in Southeast Asia, because it wanted to tap into a larger investor base.

But Oey said Thursday that the company wouldn't rule out the possibility of listing on another exchange at some point. "We're open to Southeast Asia and other opportunities," he added.

Still, the executive emphasized that the company would take it one step at a time.

"For us right now it's [about] making sure that we execute the business and stay focused, and support those shareholders who are in the ride with us," said Oey.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
×