NASDAQ-LISTED Grab on Thursday (Aug 15) posted a loss of US$53 million for the second quarter ended Jun 30, trimmed from a US$135 million loss in the corresponding year-ago period.
The improved loss, however, missed estimates of a US$43.4 million loss in a poll of eight analysts by Bloomberg.
Revenue for the three months was US$664 million, rising 17 per cent on-year from US$567 million, driven by growth across all segments, said Grab. It failed to meet an estimate of US$676.9 million in a 15-analyst Bloomberg poll.
Loss per share was US$0.01, narrowing from US$0.03.
The group’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) reversed into the black at US$64 million, from a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation of US$17 million.
This comes as the technology group continues to grow on-demand gross merchandise value (GMV) and revenue, while “improving profitability on a segment-adjusted Ebitda basis and lowering regional corporate costs”, said Grab.
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Regional corporate costs are costs that are not attributed to any of the business segments, including certain costs of revenue, research and development expenses, general and administrative expenses and marketing expenses. They include cloud computing costs.
On-demand GMV – which includes mobility and deliveries – for the quarter grew 13 per cent year on year to US$4.4 billion from US$3.9 billion, underpinned by growth in average user frequency and total transactions.
Adjusted free cash flow for the three months was US$36 million, reversing from a negative US$19 million in the corresponding year-ago period.
On a half-year basis, the company’s loss for the period narrowed to US$157 million from US$378 million year on year, while revenue gained 21 per cent to US$1.3 billion from US$1.1 billion.
Anthony Tan, Grab’s co-founder and group chief executive officer, said: “During the quarter, we achieved a new milestone, serving more users than ever at a record high of 41 million monthly transacting users while delivering continued profitable growth at scale.”
Peter Oey, the group’s chief financial officer, said: “We also achieved our 10th consecutive quarter of adjusted Ebitda growth and our second quarter of positive adjusted free cash flow. We now expect to achieve positive adjusted free cash flow for the full year of 2024.”
Shares of Grab closed at US$3.37 on Wednesday, before the results. It is down 7.1 per cent or US$0.26 to US$3.12 in pre-market trading, as at Thursday, 7.33 pm Singapore time.
