Business Briefs: Grab expands delivery services

Grab expands delivery services

Grab Holdings, South-east Asia's ride-hailing giant, is expanding delivery services from convenience stores and supermarkets across 50 cities in the region.

The Singapore-based start-up said it has teamed up with 3,000 stores as it accelerates the delivery of groceries, toilet paper, packaged snacks and beverages to cater to consumers mostly stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Grab provided the service in two countries before the Covid-19 outbreak, and it is now available in eight, adding the likes of Myanmar and Cambodia.

Ms Demi Yu, regional head of GrabFood and GrabMart, said the company is boosting investment in deliveries this year to meet rising consumer demand.

BLOOMBERG


Thai outlook bleaker than expected

Thailand's economy will contract more than expected this year, with the job outlook deteriorating sharply amid the coronavirus outbreak, minutes from the latest policy meeting showed yesterday.

On May 20, the Bank of Thailand's (BOT) policy committee voted 4-3 to cut the one-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 0.5 per cent, with the three dissenters favouring no policy change.

In March, the BOT predicted the economy would shrink 5.3 per cent this year, the biggest contraction since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

REUTERS


Samsung heir faces possible arrest

South Korean prosecutors have requested an arrest warrant against Samsung Group heir Lee Jae-yong, they said yesterday, in the investigation of a controversial 2015 merger and alleged accounting fraud in a suspected bid to aid his succession plans.

The move spells fresh trouble for Lee, who, if arrested, faces a return to jail just a little over two years after being released from detention in February 2018.

Lee already faces trial on a charge of bribery aimed at winning support to succeed ailing group patriarch Lee Kun-hee, and spent a year in detention until the bribery case was suspended in 2018.

Prosecutors said they sought Lee's arrest on suspicions of stock price manipulation and audit rule violations, among other offences.

In a statement, Lee's lawyers expressed "deep regret" at the prosecution's decision to seek his arrest, adding that he had fully cooperated with the investigation.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 05, 2020, with the headline Business Briefs: Grab expands delivery services. Subscribe