By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Grab shares were set to rebound in Friday’s premarket trading after they lost more than a fifth of their value on their Nasdaq debut in the previous session.
The Southeast Asian super-app's stock was quoted up 7.4% at $9.40, having fallen from $13.06 to $8.75 on Thursday, its first day of trading.
At Thursday's close, the ride-hailing and delivery giant had a market capitalization of around $35 billion.
Grab’s early backers include Softbank (T:9984), Toyota (NYSE:TM), Hyundai Motor (OTC:HYMLY) and Didi (NYSE:DIDI).
The loss-making firm combined with SPAC Altimeter Growth in a deal that valued it at close to $40 billion, making it the largest ever U.S. listing by a Southeast Asian company. It was also the largest listing through a merger with a blank check company, a process that many startups adopt because of faster listing and cheaper costs associated with a SPAC listing.
SPAC, short for Special Purpose Acquisition Company, is a firm created with the purpose of raising capital from public markets and using that cash to merge it with a private firm to take the latter public. A SPAC is usually backed by industry veterans which is what gets it the premium even as investors are unaware of the identity of the firm that will be pursued for a merger.