Grab said to be exploring secondary listing in S'pore

Grab Holdings, South-east Asia's ride-hailing to delivery giant, is considering a secondary listing in its home market of Singapore after completing a Nasdaq listing via a US$40 billion (S$53.4 billion) Spac merger, said three sources familiar with the matter.

Listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) would enable Grab to have an investor base close to where its regional business is based, the sources said, potentially offering its customers, drivers and merchant partners easier access to trade its shares.

Grab, a household name in South-east Asia, is in the early stages of considering a secondary listing in the city state, said the sources, who declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak about the matter.

The potential Singapore listing plans come after Grab this week agreed on a US$40 billion merger with Altimeter Growth, a special purpose acquisition company (Spac), making this the world's biggest Spac deal.

Grab, which began as a ride-hailing business in 2012, now operates in eight countries and over 400 cities and has expanded into food and grocery deliveries, as well as digital payments. Last year, it won a digital banking licence in Singapore.

It was not clear how much Grab might aim to raise in any secondary listing, with the financial terms and timetable still in the early stages of consideration, the sources said.

The company with the top valuation on the Singapore bourse is DBS Group, worth about $74 billion by capitalisation.

Grab and the SGX declined to comment on the listing plans.

One of the sources said that while Grab has sufficient cash reserves and could end up raising only a small amount on the SGX, a listing would mark a big win for the exchange.

The SGX has mainly seen large initial public offerings only from real estate investment trusts. Hindered by a small base of retail investors in the city state, it has struggled with low liquidity and valuations, forcing a spate of delistings and also discouraging big-ticket listings from regional high-growth companies.

The SGX has taken many steps to try to bulk up its stock market in recent years, and under chief executive Loh Boon Chye, who was appointed six years ago, it has acquired firms to transform itself into a multi-asset exchange.

Currently, there are 28 companies with a secondary listing on the SGX, including Malaysia's IHH Healthcare and Top Glove and Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings.

Last year, AMTD International became the first firm listed on the New York Stock Exchange to list on the SGX. It also became the first to take advantage of a dual-class share structure in Singapore.

For Grab, as part of the Spac merger, it is raising US$4 billion from global investors including BlackRock, Singapore's Temasek, Fidelity International, Malaysia's Permodalan Nasional and some of Indonesia's richest family groups.

REUTERS