Grab confirms buying Uber businesses in Southeast Asia

Private ride-hailing service Grab on Monday confirmed that it has acquired Uber’s operation in Southeast Asia.

In a statement, Grab said the deal was the largest acquisition by a Southeast Asian internet company,” which reflects the company’s leadership position in the region.

“Grab is acquiring Uber’s rideshare and food delivery businesses in Southeast Asia, and integrating them into Grab’s leading transportation and fintech platform,” the statement read.

Grab said Uber would take 27.5% stake in Grab, which it said was “reflective of the companies’ respective market shares.”

“The acquisition accelerates Grab’s path to profitability in its core transport business, as it’s the most cost efficient Southeast Asian platform,” it said.

The acquisition, it said, “reflects Grab’s transport market leadership in Southeast Asia.”

Anthony Tan, group CEO and co-founder of Grab said the acquisition of Uber “marks the beginning of a new era.”

“We are humbled that a company born in SEA has built one of the largest platforms that millions of consumers use daily and provides income opportunities to over 5 million people. Today’s acquisition marks the beginning of a new era,” Tan said.

“The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region. Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfil our promise to serve our customers,” he added.

Their trust in us as a transport brand allows us to look towards the next step as a company: improving people’s lives through food, payments and financial services.

Aside from Uber’s rideshare, Grab has also acquired Uber’s food delivery businesses in Southeast Asia.

“Grab will also take over the Uber Eats operations to immediately become a major player in food delivery services,” it said.

Grab said the GrabFood service would expand from two existing countries to all major Southeast Asian countries by next quarter.

“This will be another great use case to drive continued adoption of the GrabPay mobile wallet and support Grab’s growing Financial Services platform,” it said. /cbb