Uber exits Southeast Asia after selling operations to rival

Ride-hailing giant Uber is selling its business in Southeast Asia to regional rival Grab while gaining a robust stake in the fast-growing ridesharing, food delivery and financial services business.

Uber anticipated making more deals with rivals, but said it had no plans for another sale in which it consolidates its operations in exchange for a minority stake in a rival.

The latest deal with Grab means Uber is joining Didi and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.as one of Grab’s largest investors.

Uber’s ride-hailing business is standing down in Southeast Asia, its been announced.

The agreement will include all of Uber’s operations in Southeast Asia, as well as Uber Eats in the region.

Chief Executive of Grab, Anthony Tan said,”Today’s acquisition marks the beginning of a new era”. Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in November at a conference in NY that the company’s Asia operations were not going to be “profitable any time soon”.

Grab is South East Asia’s most popular ride-sharing firm having millions of users across eight countries. The merging of Uber Eats will further give Grab an advantage over Go-Jek, which also has a vast range of services apart from ride hailing.

UberEats will continue to operate until the end of May, after which, the delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform.

In China, too, Uber sold off its local business to a competitor and partner, Didi Chuxing, taking a stake in Didi. “After investing $700 million in the region, we will hold a stake worth several billion dollars, and strategic ownership in what we believe will be the victor in an important global region”. Khosrowshahi said that it will assist us in dueling down on our suggestions for expansion as we expend deliberately in the products and technology to generate the supreme customer experience on the planet. A report March 8 noted that the Uber and Grab were close to a deal. Uber also merged its Russian operation into local firm Yandex a year ago, where they both are setting up a yet-to-be-named company.

Added Tan Hooi Ling, co-founder of Grab, “We will rapidly and efficiently expand GrabFood into all major SEA countries in the next quarter”. All of Uber’s customer data except payment information will also be transferred to Grab, allowing customers to view their past transaction history and ratings they held on the Uber app previously.

Fears have mounted that Uber’s withdrawal from Southeast Asia could result in higher prices.