Grab CEO Anthony Tan singles out one market as shares soar after blowout quarter: ‘Everybody loves Thailand’

The Singapore-headquartered tech group reported a strong September quarter with revenue for its three business segments—deliveries, ride-hailing, and finance—all posting double digit year-on-year growth. Grab released its results after markets in New York closed on Monday.  

For the three months ending September 30, Grab reported revenue of $716 million, up 17% from the same period the year before.

Revenue for its ride-hailing business grew 17% on-year to reach $271 million and deliveries grew 13% to reach $380 million. Its financial services segment, a newer business, grew 34% to reach $64 million.

Grab serves over 700 cities across eight countries in Southeast Asia and the company is expecting to take this momentum into the final three months of the year, driven by strong travel demand—especially in Thailand.

“Just recently we were with the Prime Minister of Thailand. I mean it’s like the movie, Everybody Loves Raymond. This one’s Everybody Loves Thailand,” Grab’s CEO Anthony Tan said on the earnings call. “There’s a lot of people coming in and we’re really blessed to see that strengthening of inbound tourism that’s supporting our growth.”

Grab shares soared 12% in after-hours trading as it raised its profit outlook off the back of the strong September quarter.

The superapp provider now projects revenue to come in between $2.76 billion and $2.78 billion for the year, up from its previous estimate of between $2.70 billion and $2.75 billion. Grab also raised its profit outlook to between $308 million and $313 million on an adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) basis, up from its previous guidance of between $250 and $270 million.

Overall, Grab logged a net profit of $15 million for the quarter, reversing a loss of $99 million from the same period a year ago. The most recent quarter is only the second time Grab has logged a quarterly net profit. Grab recorded its first quarterly profit at the tail end of 2023.

Cost-cutting drive

Grab’s latest quarter could signal that its cost-cutting drive is starting to produce the desired results as the company has also now delivered 11 consecutive quarters of adjusted Ebitda improvement.

Early on, Grab spent heavily in a bid to grow its market share and fend off competition, but in recent years, the company has enacted a series of cost-cutting measures like salary freezes as it turned its focus to profitability. The company also pared back on some incentives after spending heavily in its earlier years in a bid to grow market share and fend off competition.

On the earnings call, Grab COO Alex Hungate highlighted that incentives as a percentage of gross merchandise value has been trending downwards and that the firm is more calculated with how it uses incentives going forward. AI developments could also help Grab further optimize its incentives.

“We will use incentives from time to time to generate momentum behind new ways of interacting with the app, but those will peak at different times and then also come off. So those are not long-term,” Hungate said.

Hungate also added the company has already seen strong growth momentum in October and November to date.