Alibaba is in talks to invest US$3 billion in Grab: Report

SINGAPORE: Alibaba is in talks to invest US$3 billion into Southeast Asia's biggest ride-hailing firm Grab, Bloomberg News reported on Monday (Sep 14), 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 was not immediately available to respond to a Reuters request for comment.

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.