NEW YORK, March 26, 2026, 11:03 EDT.
Grab Holdings climbed roughly 1.2% to $3.78 on the Nasdaq early Thursday, after announcing March 24 it plans to tap JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley for up to $400 million in share buybacks under an existing repurchase plan. SEC
Timing is key here. Back on March 23, Grab struck a $600 million deal to acquire Delivery Hero’s foodpanda business in Taiwan—marking its debut beyond Southeast Asia. Now, investors are being asked to support both this expansion and the promise of cash returns. Share buybacks reduce the float, helping boost per-share earnings as long as growth continues. SEC
Grab CFO Peter Oey described the buyback as a signal of faith in the company’s “long-term growth trajectory,” characterizing the recent dip as a “clear opportunity to enhance shareholder value.” Funding for the repurchases will come out of Grab’s own cash pile, with gross cash liquidity at $7.4 billion and net cash at $5.4 billion by year-end 2025, the company said. SEC
Grab plans to tap $250 million for an accelerated share repurchase, according to the filing, giving it a way to pull shares out of the market fast. There’s also another potential $150 million on the table through a contingent forward purchase linked to future stock prices. JPMorgan will hand over roughly 54.9 million shares right away. Altogether, these deals will eat up $400 million of the $500 million buyback program that won board approval in February. SEC
Grab’s move into Taiwan marks its most ambitious bet yet. The company said snapping up the business would punch its ticket into a delivery scene where foodpanda and Uber Eats run the show. CEO Anthony Tan called it a “natural next step.” If the deal wraps up in the back half of 2026, Grab is banking on a minimum of $60 million in incremental adjusted EBITDA in 2028. The Business Times
Analyst sentiment leaned positive. Maybank bumped its target price up to $6.48, just above its previous $6.44, calling Taiwan “structurally attractive.” DBS stuck with its buy rating and held its target at $5.93, noting the proposed deal would have “almost negligible” impact on 2026 earnings. The Business Times
That’s been Grab’s narrative since Feb. 26. President Alex Hungate told Reuters their top priority for cash is putting it back into Southeast Asia—though they’re open to the occasional deal. He laid out ambitions: targeting annual revenue growth above 20% for the next three years, and aiming for adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 billion by 2028. According to Reuters company data, Grab swung to a net profit of $268 million in 2025 after logging a loss for 2024. Reuters
Risks are still in play. Regulatory sign-off is pending on the Taiwan acquisition, and Maybank is warning that expenses tied to integrating, migrating, and unifying technology may weigh on earnings into 2026 and 2027. The brokerage is also pointing to rising fuel costs and stepped-up competition from Gojek in Indonesia and XanhSM in Vietnam. Reuters
Thursday’s gains did little to close the gap: Grab shares remain far under the price targets set by DBS and Maybank earlier this week. Now, investors are left eyeing two fronts—hoping the buyback props up the stock in the near term, and watching to see if the Taiwan integration happens without management dialing back those 2028 profit ambitions. The Business Times
