(Reuters) – Shares in Grab Holdings Ltd tumbled 37% on Thursday after Southeast Asia’s no. 1 ride-hailing and meals supply agency posted a wider quarterly loss and a worse-than-expected drop in revenue, hit by promotional affords and better driver incentives.
Singapore-based Grab mentioned it had invested aggressively in bettering incentives to draw drivers as ride-share demand recovered from pandemic lows.
Grab’s revenue fell 44% to $122 million within the fourth quarter, nicely under the common analyst estimate of $167 million, in response to Refinitiv knowledge. Its loss widened to $1.1 billion, together with bills associated to Grab’s itemizing, versus a lack of $635 million a yr earlier.
Shares of Grab, which was reporting its first quarterly earnings since going public in December, skidded to their lowest ever. They have misplaced practically three-quarters in worth since their debut.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Oey mentioned in an interview that demand for drivers has shot up and the corporate was nonetheless catching up when it comes to provide.
Revenue from Grab’s supply unit, which focuses on meals supply providers in international locations together with Singapore and Malaysia, was nearly worn out, plunging 98% as the corporate poured cash into incentives to retain its market chief place, and extra folks eating out harm demand.
Revenue in its mobility unit, which accounted for 86% of total gross sales, declined 27% within the quarter.
Founded in 2012 as a regional taxi app in Malaysia, SoftBank Group-backed Grab operates a “tremendous app”, which supplies ride-hailing, meals and grocery supply, cell banking and funds in Southeast Asia.
The firm, which mixed with clean examine agency Altimeter Growth Corp in a $40 billion merger final yr and went public in December, is dealing with rising competitors from different “tremendous apps” such as Gojek in Indonesia.
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru and Sayantani Ghosh; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Kenneth Maxwell)
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