Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On the morning of Sept. 28, Beijing time, it was reported that Southeast Asian ride-hailing and express service giant Grab was valued at 10.8 billion US dollars. The 10-year-old company will be profitable by 2024, despite slowing growth amid heightened recession fears and rising inflation, the company said.

Grab is listed on NASDAQ and is supported by Uber and Softbank Corp.. On Tuesday, local time, the company said revenue growth in 2023 would be between 45% and 55% on a constant exchange rate basis, lower than expected in 2022. The company expects revenue of between $1.25 billion and $1.3 billion in 2022.

Grab's share price has fallen sharply since it went public through special-purpose acquisitions in December 2021. In addition to never making a profit, the company has been hit by a sell-off in technology stocks, which has fallen 61% so far this year.

The announcement is the first time that Grab has set a profit target, although the target is adjusted and does not include special items such as restructuring costs. The company said it wanted to clarify its "refined and focused" strategy, focusing on local business and liquidity.

"We expect the environment to remain tough," Alex Hungate, the company's chief operating officer, said in an interview at its headquarters in Singapore.

"We want to be the largest and most efficient demand-side platform in Southeast Asia. We are a single application for consumers, but we don't do everything for consumers."

Grab is trying to reassure investors that it has $6 billion in cash and liquid assets and is in good shape. The company expects adjusted losses to narrow to $380 million in the second half of the year, compared with $520 million in the first half.

Grab operates in 480 cities in eight countries in south-east Asia, including Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, and has long been a barometer of the health of the region's consumer technology industry. The company started as a ride-hailing company and has since expanded into services such as banking, loans, grocery distribution and hotel reservations.

Grab said it had abandoned some expensive businesses that helped boost its reputation as an Asian "super app". The company lost $3.4 billion in 2021.

The company abandoned plans to enter behind-the-scenes stores, which are displayed in the same way as regular stores. In behind-the-scenes stores, the company has set up its own warehouses and distribution centres, bought wholesale inventory and instead established partnerships with large retailers such as Jaya Grocer, a Malaysian supermarket chain, and Trans Retail, an Indonesian supermarket group. Hungate said Grab's plans to enter the so-called Cloud Kitchen are also being phased out.

Grab says it doesn't have to announce mass layoffs like other technology companies this year. Hungate added that the technology group would hire next year, particularly in financial services.

The group has launched a digital bank in Singapore as part of a partnership with telecoms group Singtel. In addition, the group plans to hire staff for two other banks in Indonesia and Malaysia in 2023.

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