Has the SPAC spigot run dry for Grab’s public debut?
GrabBajaj in Myanmar Premium
As the number of SPAC IPOs plummets and retail investor appetite wanes over tighter regulatory oversight, a question arises whether Southeast Asia’s tech giant Grab, which plans to go public via a merger with Nasdaq-listed Altimeter Growth Corp, has missed the momentum.
Continue reading this story with a subscription to DealStreetAsia.
Contact us for corporate subscriptions at subs@dealstreetasia.com.
Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief Opt out of receiving The Daily Brief in your inbox everyday
REGISTER stories left placeholder
A Grab Food delivery rider picks up orders on Orchard Road in Singapore. Tan said that South-East Asia has nearly double the population of the US, with 670 million people, and its adoption of online services, from mobility to delivery to e-payment, is still low. Bloomberg
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s tech unicorn Grab will remain focused on South-East Asian markets even after it goes public in the United States, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) quoted the co-founder and chief executive officer Anthony Tan as saying to
Asia Nikkei Review.
Noting that investors describe South-East Asia’s most valuable unlisted company as a combination of tech names like Uber Technologies and Ant Financial, Tan stressed Grab will scale up its existing core businesses such as food delivery and digital finance.
Vietnam News Agency (
Asia Nikkei Review.
Noting that investors describe Southeast Asia s most valuable unlisted company as a combination of tech names like Uber Technologies and Ant Financial, Tan stressed Grab will scale up its existing core businesses, such as food delivery and digital finance.
On April 13, Grab announced that it will go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Tan added that the company will use the capital to build the lowest cost and the most efficient delivery network by investing in maps and other technology as well as to revolutionise mobile payments, financial services and digital banking .
Tech titans Grab, Traveloka, PropertyGuru eye US listings via SPAC merger – but what of Asia’s bourses? Run for the money. Southeast Asia’s tech titans and start-up unicorns are increasingly eyeing listings on US stock markets via ‘special-purpose acquisition company’ mergers. Image: SCMP
When the Singapore-headquartered super app Grab announced on Tuesday that it was going public in the United States via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), it caused a flurry of excitement. And it s not the only Southeast Asian tech company eyeing a listing via such a move.
Indonesian unicorn Traveloka, an online travel booking platform, is also reportedly in advanced discussions to go public in the US through a SPAC merger, as is Singapore online real estate firm PropertyGuru. Unicorns are defined as tech companies valued at US$1 billion or more.
The initial public offer (IPO) of Nanofilm Technologies on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) may represent the same inflection point that the listing of Xero Technologies did for the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
The listing of Xero in late 2012 laid the foundation for the ASX to establish its brand as an ‘“Asia-Pacific Nasdaq”. It has positioned itself as a bourse able to support the finance needs of growth-stage technology enterprises.
So will Nanofilm’s listing in October 2020 enable the SGX to burnish itself as a platform for technology enterprises?
In 2020, Singapore saw the number of public companies on Singapore Exchange (SGX) hit a low of 697 following 26 corporate delistings, as per bourse figures. That marked a second year where more businesses left the Singapore public market than joined it.