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Tag: Grab Holdings Ltd

  • Thursday's analyst calls: Car rental stock gets upgraded, Citi gives up on Spirit Airlines

    Thursday's analyst calls: Car rental stock gets upgraded, Citi gives up on Spirit Airlines

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  • Vietnamese companies eye the U.S. IPO market amid a lull in Chinese listings

    Vietnamese companies eye the U.S. IPO market amid a lull in Chinese listings

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    A VinFast EV car on display at the New York Auto Show, April 13, 2022.

    Scott Mlyn | CNBC

    BEIJING — A new group of Asia-based companies are contemplating initial public offerings in the U.S., where international listings were once driven mostly by Chinese startups.

    Vietnam-based electric car company VinFast broke new ground with its U.S. listing in August, via its merger with the U.S.-listed special purpose acquisition company Black Spade Acquisition.

    While not strictly an IPO, the listing was soon followed by Vietnamese tech unicorn VNG’s filing to list on the Nasdaq. VNG’s products include gaming, fintech and music streaming.

    “Something like VinFast puts the [country] on the map,” said Johan Annell, Beijing-based partner at ARC Group.

    It sends a message that “despite capital controls, which I think is the major formal barrier for companies, it is possible for them to do IPOs,” he said.

    VNG noted in its prospectus that Vietnamese law prevents “foreign investors” from owning more than 49% of the capital used to establish a local company operating in gaming and certain other sectors. As a result, VNG is part of a reorganization which uses a Cayman Islands holding company to list in the U.S., the filing said.

    “Our corporate structure involves unique risks, has not been tested in any court and may be disallowed by Vietnamese regulatory authorities,” the filing said.

    It’s unclear when VNG will go public. But firms that scour for potential IPO clients years in advance say they are talking to more companies in Vietnam and the surrounding region.

    As local companies grow, “they are outgrowing the ability of those markets to provide the capital that they need,” said Drew Bernstein, co-chairman of accounting firm MarcumAsia. “It’s still the very early stages of the game.”

    Bernstein said he attended investing conferences in Malaysia and Vietnam in late October, where many of the attendees were the same people who’d he’d met over the last 10 to 15 years in the China-U.S. IPO circuit.

    Since the fallout over Didi in the summer of 2021, regulation and a tepid U.S. IPO market have stalled most Chinese listing plans. Only one of the 20 China-based companies that listed in the U.S. this year raised more than $50 million, according to Renaissance Capital.

    Investor relations, capital markets advisory and financial media relations firm The Blueshirt Group has also worked with many Chinese companies to list in the U.S.

    But the firm’s managing director, Gary Dvorchak, said Blueshirt organized a seminar in April with 20 to 30 Vietnamese-based companies about the path to a U.S. IPO. Many of the companies were in tech, such as payments, online games and e-commerce, he said.

    “Just in contrast the rest of Asia there’s nothing in Thailand, some in Indonesia,” he said. “So the fact that you see so many in Vietnam is really meaningful.”

    A growing startup ecosystem

    CNBC reached out to about two dozen startups with headquarters or a major office in Vietnam to ask about their U.S. IPO plans. Most of those who responded indicated any listing was still a ways off, but noted rapid growth in local startups over the last 15 years.

    “Capital available to Vietnamese startups has increased tremendously compared to 10 years ago,” said Nguyen Nguyen, CEO of fintech startup Trusting Social, whose offices in the region include Singapore and Vietnam.

    He added the growing startup ecosystem has attracted many people of Vietnamese heritage to return to their home country, while domestic economic growth has increased the market size for local players.

    Vietnam’s gross domestic product surged 3.6 times on a per capita basis between 2002 and 2022, to nearly $3,700, according to the World Bank.

    ELSA, which uses artificial intelligence to help people learn English, is based in the U.S. while co-founder and CEO Vu Van hails from Vietnam. She said given the success of Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab, more Vietnamese companies are starting to look beyond the domestic market to regional business.

    For ELSA, “when we started the company our aspiration has always been a global business with a global footprint,” Van said, adding that a “U.S. IPO would help us with that global footprint.”

    Out of 103 U.S. IPOs this year, 10 were from companies based in Southeast Asia — split between Singapore and Malaysia, according to Renaissance Capital data as of Nov. 29.

    “It is unusual to see this many listings from Asian companies outside of China,” the firm said. “However, none of these are of a significant size.”

    George Chan, global IPO leader at EY, expects “a lot” of companies from Southeast Asia will reach the IPO stage in the next 12 to 18 months, and might also consider the Hong Kong exchange.

    Read more about China from CNBC Pro

    The trend is not replacing Chinese IPOs in the U.S., Bernstein said, but rather creating new opportunities. MarcumAsia is expanding its offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shanghai, and opened an office in Hong Kong this fall.

    MarcumAsia opened an office in Singapore in May 2022 and doesn’t have plans for other offices in Southeast Asia right now, he said. “There haven’t been enough large deals done in the markets outside of China to give people the sense of security that they can get the deal done.”

    Ultimately, global IPO markets need to recover before any company can make serious plans.

    “There is definitely a very robust pipeline of companies from Southeast Asia who are evaluating the U.S. markets,” Bob McCooey, a vice chairman at Nasdaq, said in a phone interview this fall. He noted that given market conditions, many companies are delaying their listing plans to the first half of next year.

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  • Sea pivoted to growth over profits as it faced rising competition from TikTok, Lazada, analysts say

    Sea pivoted to growth over profits as it faced rising competition from TikTok, Lazada, analysts say

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    Forrest Li, chief executive officer of Sea Ltd., in Singapore, on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

    Ore Huiying | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Shares of Southeast Asian tech giant Sea plummeted this week after missing revenue expectations and saying it would focus on growth over profits — a reversal from recent cost-cutting measures in the face of economic uncertainty. But analysts said the pivot is a move to defend market share.

    On Tuesday, the company reported revenue that missed analyst expectations, coming in at $3.1 billion versus the $3.2 billion expected, according to a Refinitiv consensus estimate.

    While Forrest Li, Sea’s chairman and group CEO, said the company has “achieved self-sufficiency” and is “now on firmer footing,” he said Sea will now “reaccelerate investments in growth.”

    The stock plunged after Tuesday’s earnings report, ending the session 28% lower.

    Just last year, Sea overhauled its business to focus on profitability amid high inflation and interest rates. At the same time, investors were pressuring tech firms to move toward profitability. Other regional tech giants like GoTo and Grab slashed costs by conducting mass layoffs and reducing customer incentives.

    Sea’s top management gave up their salaries, while the company froze salaries for most employees and paid out lower bonuses. Local media reported the company laid off more than 7,000 employees in six months.

    Defending your market share is the right strategy in e-commerce. You don’t want to give a foot in the door to the new player. That’s what we think Sea’s doing.

    Sachin Mittal

    Head of telecom, media and technology researh, DBS Bank

    As a result, Sea posted positive net income for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2022 and that figure has remained in the black since. Before that, Sea was largely unprofitable, amassing billions of dollars in losses since its inception.

    “The good news for them is that they have built up sort of a buffer to increase some of its spending, with all of its segments now profitable,” said Woo.

    Boosting e-commerce

    In particular, Li said the company has “started, and will continue, to ramp up our investments in growing the e-commerce business across our markets.” JPMorgan said those investments could take the form of expensive shipping subsidies and discount vouchers.

    “Given the weakening macro environment and increasing competition from Lazada and TikTok Shop, Sea probably did not have much of a choice but to start spending to at least maintain its market share in the region,” said Jonathan Woo, senior research analyst at Phillip Securities Research.

    Sea’s decision to accelerate ecommerce investments in growth is likely to materially weigh on its earnings and share price in the near-term.

    JPMorgan

    Head of telecom, media and technology research, DBS Bank

    Shopee remains the market leader in the region, with a gross merchandise volume of $47.9 billion in 2022, according to a report from Momentum Works. Lazada’s GMV came in at $20.1 billion in the same year.

    “In our view, the pivot could be driven by competition along with Sea positioning itself for an increase in consumer spend, and to grow live-streaming and in-house logistics,” said JPMorgan analysts.

    Right strategy?

    But Sea’s decision to ramp up investments is likely to impact earnings, said JPMorgan. The bank downgraded Sea’s rating from “overweight” to “neutral” with a price target of $40.50, representing 2.56% upside from the stock’s Thursday close of $39.49.

    “Sea’s decision to accelerate ecommerce investments in growth is likely to materially weigh on its earnings and share price in the near-term,” said JPMorgan.

    “Sea could potentially incur heavy investments in second half of 2023 (a busy campaign period) resulting in earnings decline in second half.”

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  • Singapore’s gig workers are its most financially stretched group, DBS study says

    Singapore’s gig workers are its most financially stretched group, DBS study says

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    A DBS study conducted in May 2023 found that gig workers were the most financially stretched, with relatively less stable income flows and savings declining year on year to an “unhealthy range.”

    Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    High inflation and interest rates have diminished the purchasing power of Singaporeans — and gig workers and low-income individuals are the most affected. 

    That’s according to a new DBS study conducted in May 2023, which analyzed its database of about 1.2 million customers. 

    The report from the Singapore bank said that gig workers were found to be the most financially stretched, with relatively less stable income flows and savings declining year on year to an “unhealthy range.” 

    In Singapore, gig workers are generally self-employed. “These would include platform workers, who derive a significant part of their income through online matching platforms,” said the report.

    Such platforms include ride-hailing or food delivery drivers from apps like Grab, GoJek and Foodpanda.

    Those workers don’t receive employer contributions to the Central Provident Fund, a national savings scheme.

    The expense-to-income ratio of gig workers was 112% in May 2023 — “significantly higher” than the median customer’s 57%, DBS said. 

    Additionally, ride-hailing or food gig workers’ savings can cover only 1.7 months’ worth of expenses, down from 1.9 months in May 2022. That’s lower than the bank’s recommended range of three to six months. 

    And customers earning between 2,500 Singapore dollars ($1,891) and SG$5,000 ($3,783) have savings that can cover 2.3 months of expenses.

    “Some segments of society could potentially find themselves in a double-whammy situation, where inflation continues to dilute their purchasing power and erode savings, while high interest rates take a toll on their balance sheets,” said Irvin Seah, DBS Bank’s senior economist.

    Low-income group and boomers at risk 

    Disposable income for the bank’s customers improved from a year ago, as the growth of the median customer’s income outpaced that of expenses, said the report. 

    It found that the rate of expense growth was 2.7%, while income grew almost three times more. 

    “The slower growth in expenses can be attributed to the moderation of post pandemic pent-up spending,” said DBS. 

    However, findings for the lower-income group and baby boomers (59 to 77 years old) paint a different picture — growth in expenses outpaced income growth. 

    Low-income customers, or those earning S$2,499 and below per month, saw their expenses grow 1.2 times faster than their income, said the report. 

    How gig workers are surviving the pandemic

    For that group, expenses made up 93% of take-home incomes, suggesting “worsening cashflows” over the past year. 

    Expenses for boomers grew about five times faster than their income, with spending making up 86% of income.

    That’s higher than the 64% for Gen X (43 to 58 years old), 47% for millennials (27 to 42 years old) and 38% for Gen Z (26 years old and below). 

    Rising mortgage payments 

    The Fed will raise rates two more times, says Contrast Capital’s Ron Insana

    According to DBS, the three-month compounded SORA rose from 0.1949% at the beginning of 2022 to about 3% in January 2023. 

    “Potential stresses could emerge if income growth moderates going forward, and interest rates continue to remain high,” the report added. 

    “The support from higher income growth to customers’ mortgage servicing ability may fade if the economic outlook deteriorates.”

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  • Grab cuts 1,000 jobs, its biggest round of layoffs since the pandemic

    Grab cuts 1,000 jobs, its biggest round of layoffs since the pandemic

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    The headquarters of Grab Holdings Ltd., in Singapore. Grab Holdings Ltd., reported its latest earnings on Feb. 23, 2023.

    Bryan van der Beek | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Singapore-based Grab Holdings is cutting over 1,000 jobs, its CEO said Tuesday, in a bid to manage costs and reorganize the company in a competitive landscape.

    In an email to staff, CEO Anthony Tan said the layoffs are a “painful but necessary step” that the ride-hailing and food delivery app operator must take to remain competitive in the future.

    “The primary goal of this exercise is to strategically reorganize ourselves, so that we can move faster, work smarter, and rebalance our resources across our portfolio in line with our longer term strategies,” said Tan.

    This is the group’s largest round of layoffs since 2020, when it cut 360 jobs in response to Covid-19 pandemic challenges.

    Even without layoffs, Tan said Grab is on track to hit breakeven this year on group adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. In February, the company said it was bringing forward its target to the fourth quarter of 2023, half a year earlier than its previous guidance.

    The CEO said the job cuts are not a “shortcut to profitability” but will enable Grab to adapt to the business environment and rapid emergence of A.I.

    Tan said Grab will provide severance payment of half a month for every six months of completed service, or based on local statutory guidelines, whichever is higher. Laid off workers will also receive medical insurance coverage until the end of the year, repatriation support as well as career transition and development support, among other measures.

    The announcement comes after Grab’s COO Alex Hungate told Reuters in September that the company does not expect to conduct mass layoffs despite weaker economic conditions. Hungate said Grab was “very careful and judicious about any hiring.”

    Major U.S. tech firms like Amazon and Meta went on a hiring spree during the pandemic as lockdowns boosted business. Many later laid off thousands of workers as business conditions reverted to or approached pre-pandemic conditions.

    Grab posted strong revenue growth and narrowed losses for 2022, citing a rebound in mobility demand.

    Tuesday’s announcement is the latest round of layoffs from a major Southeast Asian tech company. In March, Indonesia’s GoTo announced it was laying off 600 employees to boost profitability, Reuters reported, while Singapore-based Sea cut more than 7,000 jobs in the last six months of 2022.

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  • Here are Friday’s biggest analyst calls: Amazon, Tesla, CVS, Microsoft, XPO, AT&T, Spotify & more

    Here are Friday’s biggest analyst calls: Amazon, Tesla, CVS, Microsoft, XPO, AT&T, Spotify & more

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  • Singapore’s digital banks dangle incentives to win new customers — is it sustainable?

    Singapore’s digital banks dangle incentives to win new customers — is it sustainable?

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    Singapore’s new digital retail banks are offering lower fees, more incentives and waiving minimum account balances to win over customers from traditional banks. But how viable is this in the long run?

    Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    SINGAPORE — Digital retail banks in Singapore are pulling out all stops to win new customers.

    Trust Bank and GXS Bank — two online retail banks launched last year — are offering lower fees, more incentives and waiving minimum account balances to win over customers from traditional banks.

    But how viable is this in the long run?

    “It is tremendous returns, but there’s no way that is sustainable. It has to be subsidized in some way,” Zennon Kapron, founder and director of research and consulting firm Kapronasia, told CNBC.

    Unlike traditional banks — like DBS, OCBC and UOB — which operate physical branches and automated teller machines, digital banks operate entirely online.

    Singapore’s new digital banks

    The city-state gave out four digital bank licenses in December 2020.

    Two digital full bank licenses went to GrabSingtel‘s GXS Bank and Sea Group‘s MariBank which serve retail customers. The other two digital wholesale bank licenses were bagged by Ant Group’s ANEXT Bank and Green Link Digital Bank, catering to small-and-medium enterprises and other non-retail segments.

    GXS Bank currently offers its service to customers and employees by invite only, while MariBank is only available to employees of Sea Group.

    Trust Bank, on the other hand, did not have to jump through the hoops to apply for a separate digital full bank license as it’s backed by banking giant Standard Chartered, which secured an additional full bank license to establish a subsidiary to operate a digital bank.

    A partnership between Standard Chartered and Singapore’s largest supermarket chain FairPrice Group, Trust Bank appears to be making some headway since its Sept. 1 launch.

    It is useful for a short-term customer acquisition story but it will be a big challenge to keep these customers coming back.

    Zennon Kapron

    director, Kapronasia

    Trust Bank claims to have reached more than 450,000 customers and achieved 9% of banking market share in Singapore within five months, based on data shared with CNBC.

    New credit card customers receive vouchers worth 25 Singapore dollars ($18.80) to spend at FairPrice supermarkets, and can continue to accumulate reward points when they purchase groceries there. During their first month of launch, Trust gave out almost 60 tons of rice and over 11,000 breakfast sets – each worth more than S$2, according to the bank.

    The bank wouldn’t divulge its customer retention rate nor profit margin to CNBC.

    “While it is common in the market today to offer high-ticket and big rewards which are either complex to understand or have a poor experience, Trust offers simple, easy to understand rewards which are always tangible, which help bring down the cost of living and importantly, are in real time,” Dwaipayan Sadhu, CEO of Trust Bank, told CNBC over email.

    “It is useful for a short-term customer acquisition story but it will be a big challenge to keep these customers coming back,” Kapron from Kapronasia said.

    Trust Bank does not charge any annual fees or fees for foreign transaction, cash advance nor card replacement to credit card customers. It also does not require a minimum balance for its savings account, unlike traditional banks.

    Its rival GXS Bank also does not require minimum balances for holders of savings accounts, currently the only product the bank is offering. GXS is a consortium between ride-hailing and food delivery giant Grab and Singapore’s largest telco provider Singtel.

    The company says it targets the “underserved segment” — which includes the gig economy workers, self-employed entrepreneurs and those new to the workforce.

    The bank has removed certain fees, such as fall-below fees that are usually charged when the balance drops below the minimum daily average.

    The bank has “a low cost of acquisition and low cost to serve,” its CEO Charles Wong told CNBC.

    “As a digital bank, we are unencumbered by the cost of maintaining a physical network such as branches or physical ATMs, resulting in cost savings on our overheads,” Wong explained.

    In addition, Grab and Singtel have a combined customer base of over 3 million and the bank is “leveraging on [the] two giants for retail customers.”

    “We also don’t provide gifts for customers. When you sign up, you sign up because it’s relevant to you or you are a Grab or Singtel customer and it is going to make it easy for you to make payments,” said Wong.

    “Yes, you get additional rewards as you spend which makes sense because you’re spending within the ecosystem.”

    GXS Bank, however, expects its bottom line to be largely driven by interest income, said Wong.

    I think it’s going to be difficult for these banks to really have an impact, especially in the retail [banking] space on the Singapore market.

    Zennon Kapron

    director, Kapronasia

    A 2022 analysis by Simon-Kucher revealed that 25 of the largest neobanks, also commonly known as digital banks, found out that only two of them — less than 10% — have achieved profitability. It also showed a majority earning less than $30 in annual revenues per customer.

    Kapron said that traditional banks offering credit card products give out welcome gifts, like travel luggage or Apple watches, because they expect to be profitable after a certain period.

    Those banks have already worked out how much they have to spend to gain a customer, and expect to recoup the costs when the customer starts missing payments or incurring interest, he explained.

    Tough competition

    I think the digital banks would have a higher rate of success if we were in a severely underbanked place like the Philippines.

    “If you look at DBS Bank, it’s not like their digital offerings are [lousy],” said James Tan, managing partner of Quest Ventures, a VC company headquartered in Singapore.

    Tan said he signed up for Trust Bank to see how different it will be to traditional banks. “I found no difference,” he told CNBC, adding that he eventually closed his Trust Bank account.

    “I think the digital banks would have a higher rate of success if we were in a severely underbanked place like the Philippines,” said Tan.

    Digital banks in Singapore unlikely to affect traditional banks in the short term: Strategist

    Kapron added that it is going to be difficult for these banks to have an impact, especially in the retail banking space in the Singapore market.

    “The market is just over-banked and the differentiator of these new digital banks doesn’t really move the needle much in terms of what they are offering.”

    “Until that happens, you are having bags of rice, high promotional discounts or rewards, which are useful for acquiring customers but then, how do you keep them coming back?” asked Kapron.

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  • Grab pares losses by 24% in third quarter; deliveries segment breaks even earlier than expected

    Grab pares losses by 24% in third quarter; deliveries segment breaks even earlier than expected

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    Singapore technology ride-sharing and food delivery service company Grab logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.

    Budrul Chukrut | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Singapore-based ride-hailing and food delivery giant Grab narrowed losses and broke even in its deliveries segment for the first time since 2012, during the third quarter.

    The company posted an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization loss of $161 million, a 24% improvement from the adjusted EBITDA loss of $212 million in the same period a year ago. EBITDA is a measure of profitability that shows earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

    Grab offers a range of services including ride-hailing, food delivery, package delivery, grocery delivery and mobile payments through GrabPay.

    The company said its delivery business broke even three quarters ahead of expectations, “primarily due to optimization of our incentive spend, and contributions from Jaya Grocer.” In January, Grab acquired a majority stake in Malaysian mass-premium supermarket chain Jaya Grocer to accelerate its expansion into grocery delivery.

    Food deliveries also reported positive adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter, two quarters ahead of its previous guidance.

    “We achieved core food deliveries and overall deliveries segment-adjusted EBITDA breakeven ahead of guidance while narrowing our overall loss for the period significantly. We accomplished this by staying laser-focused on our cost structure and incentive,” Anthony Tan, Grab co-founder and group CEO, said in a statement.

    U.S.-listed shares of Grab rose 0.64% to close at $3.15 a piece in Wednesday trade, outperforming the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite which declined 0.83% and 1.54%, respectively.

    Grab went public in December 2021 after closing its SPAC merger. The stock has plummeted 56% year to date.

    Driving toward profitability

    Grab’s monthly average active driver-partners in the quarter hit 80% of pre-Covid levels. The company also said incentives declined to 9.4% of GMV, compared with 11.4% for the same period last year and 10.4% for the previous quarter.

    “This demonstrates our commitment to growing profitably and sustainably,” said Tan.

    Grab raised its full-year forecast and now expects revenue between $1.32 billion and $1.35 billion, up from the previous range of $1.25 billion to $1.30 billion. It also revised its adjusted EBITDA outlook for the second half of the year and now expects a loss of $315 million, better than the $380 million it previously predicted.

    “We will aim to better optimize our cost structure by limiting discretionary spending,” Grab CFO Peter Oey said during the media conference.

    “We began pausing or slowing hiring in various corporate departments. We’ve also been disciplined to optimize costs in non-headcount overheads,” he added.

    Grab reports its first-quarter earnings; net loss narrows

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  • Stock market rally will be put to test in week ahead, after yields fall and tech surges

    Stock market rally will be put to test in week ahead, after yields fall and tech surges

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