Grab, Southeast Asia's biggest ride-hailing and food delivery firm, is going public in the United States via a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Altimeter Growth Corp (AGC.O) securing a valuation of nearly $40 billion.
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South-East Asia s biggest ride-hailing and food delivery firm, Grab Holdings, agreed to a merger on Tuesday with US-based Altimeter Growth Corporation in a deal that gives Grab an initial equity value of about $39.6 billion and will lead to a public listing.
The merger, the biggest blank cheque company deal ever, underscores the frenzy on Wall Street as shell firms have raised $99 billion in the United States so far this year after a record $83 billion in 2020.
Singapore-based Grab s agreement with a special purpose acquisition company backed by Altimeter Capital includes a more than $4bn private investment in public equity by investors including BlackRock, Fidelity International, Janus Henderson Investors and Temasek Holdings.
SAMR said the latest guidelines would stop monopolistic behaviours in the platform economy and protect fair competition in the market .
The notice also said it will stop companies from price fixing, restricting technologies and using data and algorithms to manipulate the market.
In a Q&A accompanying the notice, SAMR said reports of internet-related anti-monopoly behaviour had been increasing, and that it was facing challenges in regulating the industry. The behaviour is more concealed, the use of data, algorithms, platform rules and so on make it more difficult to discover and determine what are monopoly agreements, it said.
China has in recent months started to tighten scrutiny of its tech giants, reversing a once laissez-faire approach.