Grab said to move forward with talks to acquire Gojek parent GoTo

HONG KONG – Grab Holdings is moving forward with its attempt to take over GoTo Group, according to people familiar with the matter, who said the Singapore ride and delivery firm has begun due diligence on its Indonesian rival.

Grab has been evaluating GoTo’s accounts, contracts and operations, the people said, asking not to be identified because the companies have not announced a deal. Grab, GoTo and their shareholders have also been assessing the potential structure and value of an agreement, the people said.

Talks are ongoing and may not lead to a transaction, the people said.

GoTo was formed in a May 2021 merger between ride-hailing giant Gojek and e-commerce platform Tokopedia.

Grab, which is backed by Uber Technologies, has held on-and-off talks with GoTo, but a merger never materialised, partly because of antitrust concerns likely to arise from combining two dominant South-east Asian tech companies.

Uber left the region in 2018 in exchange for its stake in Grab, and smaller competitors have not eaten significantly into Grab and GoTo’s market share.

Representatives for Grab and GoTo declined to comment.

Grab is considering

a valuation of more than US$7 billion (S$9.33 billion) for GoTo,

Bloomberg News reported in February, with one scenario being an all-stock purchase at more than 100 rupiah a share. Discussions have intensified and the two see 2025 as an opportune year for a deal, people with knowledge of the talks have said.

Shares of GoTo, whose investors include SoftBank Group, rose as much as 6.3 per cent on March 18, before closing 5.1 per cent higher, while the broader Indonesian stock market plunged the most since 2011 on concerns about a weakening economy. They are up about 15 per cent in 2025, giving the company a market value of about 95 trillion rupiah (S$7.7 billion).

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Nathan Naidu said: “The chances of regulators clearing a merger between Grab and GoTo, or a takeover of GoTo by Grab, are slim given the combined entity would effectively have a 60-70 per cent share of the South-east Asian on-demand services market, we calculate using Momentum Works’ data. This may be viewed by the regulator as potential monopolistic behaviour.

“The integration of both operations may not only attract tough regulatory scrutiny, but could also result in workforce retrenchment.”

Growth for both Grab and GoTo has cooled dramatically from triple-digit rates as consumers in the region curtail spending to cope with elevated inflation and interest rates. BLOOMBERG