Southeast Asian superapp Grab on Wednesday reported a net loss of $342 million for the third quarter of 2022 — an improvement of 65% from the $988 million loss posted in the year-ago quarter.
Grab also reported revenues of $382 million in Q3 2022, up 143% from $157 million a year ago. On a constant currency basis, revenue grew 156%. The Nasdaq-listed company was able to more than double revenues thanks to the strong growth in the mobility business and deliveries.
The company said that the narrower loss was due to the elimination of the non-cash interest expenses of Grab’s convertible redeemable preference shares. The shares were converted to ordinary shares in December 2021. The loss also included a $42 million non-cash expense from fair value changes on investments and $90 million in non-cash stock-based compensation expense.
Grab’s total Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) — total value of merchandise sold — grew 26% YoY to to $5.1 billion on the back of a recovery in mobility and continued growth in the deliveries segment.
As part of its plan to grow profitability, Grab reduced incentives as a share of its GMV to 9.4% in Q3 2022, compared with 11.4% in the same period last year and 10.4% in the previous quarter (Q2 2022).
Meanwhile, Grab’s adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) stood at -$161 million, an improvement of 24%, compared to -$212 million for the same period last year. Grab attributed this improvement to the company’s move to optimise incentive spending as a percentage of GMV across the business.
Grab’s cash liquidity was $7.4 billion at the end of the third quarter, while its net cash liquidity was $5.3 billion.
“We are pleased to report a strong third quarter that reflects our accelerated path to profitability,” said Grab’s chief financial officer Peter Oey in a statement.
In the quarters ahead, the company will continue to focus on cash preservation and optimisation as it expects to have 45-55% YoY revenue growth in 2023 on a constant currency basis, Oey continued.
Strong growth in deliveries
The revenue for the deliveries segment more than tripled (up 250% YoY) from $49 million in Q3 2021 to $171 million in this year’s third quarter. The company claimed that this growth was driven by contributions from Jaya Grocer.
The company also attributed “reducing incentives and focus on driving higher quality GMV transactions” for the improvement.
Grab reported that adjusted EBITDA for its deliveries segment turned positive for the first time [three quarters ahead of expectation] due to adjustments in incentive spending and contributions from Jaya Grocer. Food delivery also turned adjusted EBITDA positive in the third quarter of 2022, two quarters ahead of its previous target.
Grab completed the acquisition of Malaysian grocery chain Jaya Grocer, with a majority 75% stake, in January this year.
Mobility
Grab reported a 101% YoY increase in the revenue of its mobility segment to $176 million on the back of demand recovery following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions across Southeast Asia.
GMV for mobility in July-September was up 105% YoY to $1,086 million from $529 million in the same period last year.
“During the quarter, we continued to streamline and expedite the onboarding process across countries to enable drivers to access more leasing vehicles. Grab’s monthly average active driver-partners in Q3 2022 was 80% of pre-COVID levels in the fourth quarter of 2019,” the company said.
Financial Services
Grab’s revenue in financial services was up 44% YoY to $20 million in the third quarter, 2022. Meanwhile the division’s commission rates increased to 2.9% in the third quarter of 2022 from 2.5% in the same period last year
Financial services’ adjusted EBITDA declined 38% YoY as the company spent more for its digital bank operations. Grab and Singtel’s GXS Bank launched its digibanking services in Singapore earlier in August. However, Grab said that its segment-adjusted EBITDA for the quarter improved by 9% QoQ.
Loan disbursements for the quarter rose 121% YoY and were up 7% QoQ. The number of active driver-partners with a loan from Grab has more than doubled YoY and Grab claimed to maintain low single digits nonperforming loans (NPL).
Enterprise and new initiatives
Revenue and GMV from Enterprise and New Initiatives rose 113% and 18% YoY, respectively driven by growing contributions from the firm’s advertising services. Meanwhile, segment-adjusted EBITDA rose 9 times in the quarter compared to the same period last year due to lowered incentives as a percentage of GMV.
“Our third-quarter results demonstrate our ability to drive growth and profitability in tandem. We achieved core food deliveries and overall Deliveries segment-adjusted EBITDA breakeven ahead of guidance while narrowing our overall loss for the period significantly,” said Anthony Tan, Group Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Grab.
In addition financial performance of all its business lines, Grab also reported that the firm’s board of directors has approved the repurchase of up to $750 million of our outstanding Term Loan B. This loan facility was issued in January 2021, with a five-year tenor and a principal amount of $2 billion. The repurchase is expected to create significant interest expense savings.
With $5.3 billion of net cash liquidity in September, the company expects to have enough cash to reach the expected Group Adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the second half of 2024.