Nasdaq-listed superapp Grab recorded a 17% year-on-year increase in its revenue in April-June (Q2) 2024 to $664 million, the company announced on Thursday.
The Southeast Asia tech giant, which has adopted severe cost-cutting measures lately, saw its quarterly loss in Q2 decrease by 54% to $68 million from $148 million a year ago, primarily due to an improvement in Group Adjusted EBITDA which was partially offset by an increase in income tax expense. Grab had booked its first-ever quarterly profit in Q4 2023.
The company’s operating loss narrowed by 68% YoY to $56 million in Q2 of this year.
While improving, revenue growth fell short of the $676.9 million estimate from a Bloomberg poll of 15 analysts, and the reported loss was greater than the anticipated $43.4 million.
Grab reported a positive adjusted EBITDA of $64 million in Q2 this year, a notable improvement from the $17 million adjusted EBITDA loss in the year-ago period.
In its statement, the company said that its gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 13% year-on-year (YoY) to a record high of $4.4 billion while group monthly transacting users (MTUs) reached 40.9 million, representing a 22% growth YoY.
Grab’s monthly transacting users
“We continued to harness the strength of the Grab ecosystem and improved the usage frequency and reliability of our products and services. During the quarter, we achieved a new milestone, serving more users than ever at a record high of 41 million MTUs while delivering continued profitable growth at scale,” said Anthony Tan, Group CEO and Co-Founder of Grab, adding that the company will continue to leverage its key product initiatives to expand its user base while maintaining cost discipline across its operations.
Grab has been focusing on driving cost efficiencies across the organisation, with staff costs within regional corporate costs declining 14% YoY in Q2. Its regional corporate costs are also down to $84 million, compared with $98 million in Q2 2023.
Net cash liquidity increased to $5.3 billion by the end of the second quarter from $5 billion in the same period last year.
In the second quarter, the company repurchased 9.6 million shares for $34.6 million under its $500 million buyback programme, bringing the total to 40 million shares repurchased for $131 million.
Grab maintained its full-year 2024 revenue guidance at $2.70-2.75 billion and group-adjusted EBITDA forecast at $250-270 million.
“We also achieved our tenth 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 2024,” said Peter Oey, Chief Financial Officer of Grab.
Consistent revenue growth in all segments
The deliveries segment was the largest revenue contributor in the second quarter, generating $356 million, an 11% YoY growth driven by increased demand in the food deliveries business and higher contributions from the Jaya and Advertising businesses.
The segment’s GMV grew 9% YoY to $2.85 billion, with adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of GMV reaching 1.5% in the second quarter of 2024, up from 0.4% in the same period in 2023.
Meanwhile, mobility revenue surged 19% YoY to $247 million, fueled by a 26% increase in Mobility MTUs and a 9% improvement in average transactions per Mobility MTU. However, the segment’s adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of Mobility GMV declined to 8.2% in Q2 2024, compared to 8.6% in the same period last year.
Revenue for the Financial Services segment grew 54% YoY to $60 million in the second quarter of 2024, which was driven by increased contributions mainly from lending across GrabFin and Digibank. Total loans disbursed grew 43% YoY to $500 million in the quarter while the outstanding loan portfolio increased 71% YoY to $397 million.
Customer deposits in the digital bank business surged to $730 million in Q2 due to th rise in deposit customers at both GXS Bank and GXBank in Malaysia. Since its public launch less than a year ago, GXBank has amassed over 750,000 deposit customers, including more than 500,000 debit cardholders as of July 2024, the company said in its statement.
