Alibaba in talks to invest US$3b in Grab, according to Bloomberg reports

BEIJING, Sept 14 — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is in talks to invest US$3 billion in Southeast Asia's biggest ride-hailing firm Grab Holdings Inc, Bloomberg News reported today, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Chinese conglomerate will be the sole investor in the funding round and will spend a portion of the funds to acquire some of the Grab stock held by Uber Technologies Inc, the Bloomberg report added.

Grab declined to comment, while Alibaba and Uber were not immediately available to respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Uber, which surrendered its Southeast Asian operations to Grab in March 2018, took a 27.5 per cent stake in Grab's business.

In April, Uber said it expects an impairment charge of up to US$2.2 billion, adding that the charge would be against the carrying value of some of the company's minority equity investments, due to the impact of the pandemic on the estimated value of those entities.

Grab, which has an estimated valuation of US$14 billion and counts SoftBank Group Corp as one of its backers, expanded into financial services, food delivery and mobile payments over the last few years, even before the Covid-19 pandemic hurt its mainstay ride-hailing business.

In June, Grab announced a 5 per cent reduction in staff numbers as it cut costs amid slower growth. — Reuters