On March 26, Grab announced that it had acquired Uber’s operations in Southeast Asia, which is confirmed merger reports which got here to light over the weekend.
Grab said it’s going to integrate Uber’s ride-sharing and food delivery businesses within the region into its platform.
“This transaction is the largest of its kind ever in Southeast Asia,” ride-hailing carrier Grab said in a press note on Monday.
“With the combined business, Grab will aim to become the leading online-to-offline mobile platform in Southeast Asia and a major player in the food delivery industry.”
As a part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5% stake in Grab, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board of directors.
It will acquire Uber’s operations and assets in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Grab CEO Ming Maa told Reuters the acquisition was conducted independently by the 2 corporations and was backed by their common investor, Japan’s SoftBank Group.
Anthony Tan, group CEO and co-founder of Grab, said: “We are honored that the Southeast Asian-born company has built one among the biggest platforms utilized by hundreds of thousands of consumers every single day and provides income opportunities to over 5 million people.
“Today’s acquisition marks the beginning of a new era. The combined company is a leader in the region in terms of platform and cost efficiency.”
GRABFOOD IN MAJOR MARITIME COUNTRIES
Ms Tan Hooi Ling, co-founder of Grab, said it might expand GrabFood to all major Southeast Asian countries by the primary half of 2018.
“GrabFood will also be another great use case that will encourage further implementation
GrabPay mobile wallet and support our growing financial services platform,” she said
In the announcement, Grab also said it’s going to proceed to expand its core transportation offerings while expanding its financial offerings reminiscent of mobile payments, microfinance and insurance.
“GrabPay as a mobile wallet will be available in all major Southeast Asian countries by the end of the year,” it said.
We are excited to take this step with Anthony and his entire team at Grab and sit up for the longer term of Grab in Southeast Asia,” said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
The deal marks the primary major industry consolidation in Southeast Asia, home to some 640 million people, and puts pressure on rivals reminiscent of Indonesia’s Go-Jek, Alphabet Inc’s Google-backed and China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Now that Uber is pulling out of Southeast Asia, attention may shift to the corporate’s operations in India, which accounts for greater than 10 percent of Uber’s rides globally but is yet to earn a living.
Uber’s take care of Grab will probably be just like the one struck in China in 2016, when a fierce price battle ended with Didi Chuxing buying out Uber’s Chinese business in exchange for a stake in the corporate.
