Grab Holdings Ltd. brought forward its profitability target after posting a narrower quarterly loss, helped by reduced spending by the Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food-delivery provider.
(Bloomberg) — Grab Holdings Ltd. brought forward its profitability target after posting a narrower quarterly loss, helped by reduced spending by the Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food-delivery provider.
The stock jumped 8% in pre-market trading after Grab said it expects to reach positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the final quarter of 2023. It previously expected to hit that goal in the second half of 2024.
Singapore-based Grab is among money-losing Southeast Asian internet giants that have shifted strategies to focus on achieving profitability instead of spending on growth. Rival GoTo Group said last week it was bringing forward its profitability targets by a year, while Sea Ltd. has cut jobs and closed down its e-commerce operations in India, Europe and some Latin American markets to trim costs.
Read: Grab Sees Slower Growth While It Pursues 2024 Profitability
Adjusted Ebitda loss for the fourth quarter narrowed to $111 million, Grab said. That compares with the $147 million loss analysts estimated. Revenue quadrupled to $502 million, also beating predictions.
The company’s projections for 2023 revenue of as much as $2.3 billion and adjusted loss of as little as $275 million also came in better than analysts had estimated.
While its competitors cut thousands of jobs last year, Grab has so far refrained from mass layoffs even after its shares slumped following its stock market debut in the US more than a year ago. The company, like its peers, is trying to convince investors of its long-term earnings prospects as stiff competition weighs on prices and margins in Southeast Asian markets where consumers have limited spending power.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says:
“As its foothold across markets strengthens and unit economics improve with greater size, Grab should be able to spend less on user acquisitions, putting it on track to turn a profit even as it invests in expansion.”
-Nathan Naidu, analyst
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Grab’s quarterly performance on an adjusted basis also beat its own projections. In November, it revised its second-half 2022 adjusted Ebitda guidance to a loss of $315 million, indicating it was expecting a loss of about $154 million for the fourth quarter.
The company is still far off from profitability on a net income basis. In the fourth quarter, its quarterly net loss narrowed to $386 million from $1.06 billion a year earlier, and its cash and cash equivalents shrank to $1.8 billion from $4.8 billion a year ago.
(Updates with stock reaction in second paragraph, full-year forecasts in fifth)
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