Big acquisitions are in Grab’s financial horizon, whether or not a GoTo merger is on the table.
On Tuesday (June 10), a day after dismissing merger reports with GoTo, Grab announced plans to offer $1.25 billion in convertible senior notes to beef up its financial muscle for potential acquisitions.
The proceeds from the notes, due in 2030, will be used “to optimise strategic flexibility,” which, according to Grab’s statement, “may include potential acquisitions”. Grab also stated they “continue to maintain a high bar for such transactions”.
The offer was announced after Grab stated in a stock exchange filing that it has not entered into any definitive agreement to buy out GoTo.
Rumours of the merger had circulated for months, including possible completion timelines in the second quarter of the year and the hiring of advisors. Indonesia’s Danantara sovereign fund was also included in the speculation as being interested in a stake in the Grab-GoTo deal.
“There have been media reports that we are engaged in discussions for a potential transaction with PT GoTo Gojek Tokopedia Tbk. The parties are not involved in any discussions at this time and Grab has not entered into any definitive agreements,” Grab said in a stock exchange filing earlier this week.
Goto and Indonesia’s Danantara also denied these rumours.
While the GoTo deal may not be the immediate target of these funds, Grab’s history demonstrates a clear strategy of growth through acquisitions
In the last five months alone, Grab has made several acquisitions. In January, Grab acquired a stake in Cambodian food delivery and e-commerce platform Nham24, a homegrown startup established in 2016.
Two months later, Grab bought a stake in Everrise, a supermarket chain operating in East Malaysia. This comes about three years after it acquired a stake in Jaya Grocer, another supermarket chain in the country.
The following month, in April 2025, Grab’s digital bank, GXS Bank, also acquired Validus Capital, a Singapore-based SME lending platform, to grow its lending to small enterprises.
“It’s worth pointing out that we have made a number of bolt-on acquisitions where we thought there were really good opportunities to have immediate impact on our either capabilities or to extend our ecosystem further,” Grab president and COO Alex Hungate said in their first quarter earnings call.
“We’ll continue to look opportunistically to see if there are opportunities for value-add and synergies into our existing businesses,” he added.
Grab also said that aside from buyouts, it also plans to buy back some of its own Class A Ordinary Shares. This share buyback will utilise a portion of Grab’s existing $500 million share repurchase programme, which still has $274 million available as of March this year.
