Grab shares plummeted by as much as 37% after Q4 2021 financial results announcement – RM4.6 bil loss – paultan.org

Grab shares plummeted as much as 37% last Thursday (March 3, 2022) after the ASEAN super-app company reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021. The company was listed on the United States’ NASDAQ on December 2 last year after a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal was approved with Altimeter Growth Corp’s investors.

Singapore-based Grab posted a revenue of USD122 million (around RM509 million) for Q4 2021, a 44% decline year-on-year (YoY) as the company said it had “preemptively invested” to increase its number of drivers to support strong recovery in mobility demand. This was compounded by increased investment in consumer incentives for mobility and deliveries.

Overall, the loss for the period was USD1.1 billion (around RM4.6 billion), which the company said was attributed to the costs of going public. These include Grab’s convertible redeemable preference shares that ceased upon the company’s public listing – a USD311 million (around RM1.3 billion) non-cash interest expense – and USD328 million (around RM1.37 billion) related to one-time public listing related expenses, of which USD290 million (around RM1.21 billion) is non-cash.

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“2021 was our strongest year yet, even as we faced tougher conditions with the Delta and Omicron variants. We achieved outsized growth in both GMV (gross merchandise value) and revenues while continuing to improve our adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margins year over year, demonstrating the resilience and growing relevance of the super-app,” said Anthony Tan, group CEO and co-founder of Grab.

“Southeast Asians are relying more and more on the Grab superapp for a multitude of daily needs. 56% of our users are now using two or more Grab services and the average user spend on our platform in 2021 grew 31% year over year. We expect 2022 to be another watershed year for Grab, as we get ready to launch our digibank in Singapore and continue to pursue the massive opportunities in deliveries to outserve consumers with more options and better convenience,” he added.

For the whole of 2021, Grab’s revenue climbed 44% YoY to USD675 million (around RM2.82 billion), but the company registered a loss of USD3.6 billion (around RM15 billion). The company expects GMV growth for each of the quarters from Q2 to Q4 this year to accelerate to 30-35% YoY, subject to shifts in the Covid-19 environment.

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