Grab’s long and winding road to profit

At long last, Grab has turned a quarterly profit, measured by adjusted EBITDA.

The ride-hailing giant announced its third-quarter results for 2023 last week, including an adjusted EBITDA profit of US$29 million.

Grab’s shares increased in value by 3% after the close of trading on Thursday on the back of the better-than-expected results. The Singapore-headquartered company went public on the Nasdaq in late 2021.

As the chart above shows, it’s been a long road for the firm to reach this milestone. In fact, between Q2 2020 and Q2 2023, Grab recorded US$2.1 billion in cumulative adjusted EBITDA losses.

Earlier this year, the company announced plans for its largest set of layoffs since the pandemic, with 1,000 jobs to be cut. At the time, CEO Antony Tan told staff that the layoffs were not meant to be “a shortcut to profitability.”

Grab has been rumored to be a potential buyer of part of Delivery Hero’s Southeast Asian operations. The parent firm of Foodpanda also reported its first adjusted EBITDA profit this year.

Credits

Graphic: Peter Cowan

Editing: Simon Huang and Dhania Putri Sarahtika