Grab Holdings, the Southeast Asian delivery group, is considering a secondary listing on its domestic market in Singapore, following the completion of a Nasdaq listing through a $ 40 billion SPAC merger, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGXL.SI) would allow Grab to have an investor base close to where its regional business is located, people said, potentially giving its customers, drivers and business partners easier access to trading its shares. .
Grab, a household name in Southeast Asia, is in the early stages of considering a secondary listing in the city-state, sources said, refusing to be identified because they were not allowed to talk about it. thing.
Grab and SGX declined to comment on the listing plans.
“For the right issuer, a secondary list could be a good move. You can get the best of both worlds,” said Raymond Tong, capital markets and M&A partner at Singapore-based law firm Rajah & Tann.
“If your home markets are in this region, a list in Singapore can help you reach another group of investors, because there are many family offices and funds based in Singapore,” Tong said.
Potential Singapore listing plans come after Grab concluded a $ 40 billion merger with Altimeter Growth Corp. this week. (AGC.O), a special purpose procurement company (SPAC), setting a record for the largest SPAC agreement in the world. Read more
As part of the transaction, Grab is raising $ 4 billion from investors, including BlackRock (BLK.N), Temasek Holdings, Fidelity International, Permodalan Nasional Bhd of Malaysia and some of Indonesia’s richest family groups.
Grab, which started as a special business in 2012, now operates in eight countries and over 400 cities and has expanded into food and feed deliveries as well as digital payments. Last year, he won a digital banking license in Singapore.
It was not clear how much Grab could aim to grow in any secondary list, with the terms and financial schedule still in the early stages of analysis, the sources said.
The company with the best rating on the Singapore stock exchange is DBS Group Ltd (DBSM.SI), currently worth approximately US $ 74 billion ($ 55.4 billion) in capitalization.
One source said that although Grab has enough cash reserves and could end up raising only a small amount at SGX, a list would mark a big gain for the exchange.
SGX has seen only high IPOs from real estate investment trusts. Obstructed by a small retail investor base in the city-state, it struggled with low liquidity and valuations, forcing a series of write-offs and also discouraging large ticket listings from high-growth regional companies.
However, the Hong Kong stock exchange has benefited from diplomatic and political tensions between the United States and China that have led many Chinese companies to seek secondary listings in Hong Kong. Global fund managers have also shifted China’s holdings from Wall Street to Hong Kong. Read more
SGX has taken many steps to try to expand its stock market in recent years, and under the leadership of CEO Loh Boon Chye, who was appointed six years ago, has acquired companies to turn it into a multi-stock market. active.
In the last three years, companies listed on SGX have raised about four times more funds in the secondary market than in raising primary funds.
There are currently 28 companies with a secondary listing on SGX, including IHH Healthcare Bhd of Malaysia (IHHH.KL) and Top Glove Corp Bhd (TPGC.KL) and Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings (JARD.SI).
Last year, AMTD International became the first NYSE listed company to include SGX. It also became the first to take advantage of a dual-class stock structure in Singapore.
($ 1 = $ 1.3351 Singapore)
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.