Talks are ongoing and may not lead to a transaction, the people said.
Grab, which is backed by Uber Technologies Inc., has held on-and-off talks with GoTo, but a merger never materialized, partly because of antitrust concerns likely to arise from combining two dominant Southeast Asian tech companies. Uber left the region in 2018 in exchange for its stake in Grab, and smaller competitors haven’t eaten significantly into Grab and GoTo’s market share.
Shares of GoTo, whose investors include SoftBank Group Corp., rose 5.1% to 83 rupiah (1 cent) in Jakarta while the broader Indonesian stock market plunged the most since 2011 on concerns about a weakening economy. GoTo’s shares are up 19% this year, giving the company a market value of 99 trillion rupiah ($7.98 billion). Grab, with a market capitalisation topping US$18 billion ($23.98 billion), advanced as much as 7.9% in US pre-market trading.
Representatives for Grab and GoTo declined to comment.
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Grab is considering a valuation of more than US$7 billion for GoTo, Bloomberg News reported in February, with one scenario being an all-stock purchase at over 100 rupiah a share. Discussions have intensified and the two see 2025 as an opportune year for a deal, people with knowledge of the talks have said.
What Bloomberg Intelligence says
Growth for both Grab and GoTo has cooled dramatically from triple-digit rates as consumers in Southeast Asia curtail spending to cope with elevated inflation and interest rates.
