Singapore-headquartered ride-hailing and deliveries company Grab on Thursday said it has reported a net loss of $988 million in the third quarter of this year, up 59% from a net loss of $621 million in the same period last year, according to its report on the third-quarter earnings.
The company said its Q3 losses widened on account of non-cash expenses.
Grab said that $748 million of the third quarter loss was due to non-cash items, primarily consisting of interest accrued on Grab’s convertible redeemable preference shares, stock-based compensation, and fair value changes on investments.
“A significant proportion of such non-cash expenses is expected to cease after the business combination,” it said in its statement.
The company recorded adjusted EBITDA losses at $212 million, increasing by 66% year-on-year, while gross merchandise volume grew by 32% to slightly more than $4 billion.
Grab chief financial officer Peter Oey said, in the statement, “As previously guided, mobility and food delivery services were suspended in Vietnam for most of Q3, and six of our core countries in which we operate experienced tighter movement controls. As we head into the fourth quarter we are already seeing mobility demand returning strongly in certain countries. Group Mobility GMV for the first four weeks of the fourth quarter was 26% higher compared to the first four weeks of the third quarter.”
Grab’s Q3 revenue was down 9% YoY to $157 million as mobility restrictions impacted ride-hailing in Vietnam. Revenue from ride-hailing was down by 26% year-on-year to $88 million, while deliveries revenue climbed 58% to $49 million.
Revenue from financial services was much less at $14 million, but rose 11% from the year before, while enterprise and new initiatives made just $7 million this quarter, declining by 37%.
Grab’s cash on hand increased to $5.2 billion as of end-September this year, up $1.5 billion from the end of 2020.
Its number of users also dipped 8% from 23.9 million in 2020 to 22.1 million this year as a result of the lockdowns, although the average spend per user increased 43% to $183.
“With recovery in sight, and the gradual reopening of economies providing tailwinds to our business, we are doubling down on investments that will help us capture a greater share of the opportunities in front of us and open up new addressable markets for Grab, such as groceries,” said Grab’s co-founder and group chief executive Anthony Tan in the statement.
Grab, which operates in eight countries and over 400 cities, confirmed that its $40-billion merger with US special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Altimeter Growth Corp is on track to complete by the end of the year.