Altimeter Growth Corp will hold an extraordinary general meeting on Nov 30 to seek shareholder approval for the merger.
Grab will hold its own EGM by the same date and assuming both sets of shareholders approve, it could complete the merger and make its public debut on Nasdaq.
In a regulatory filing last Friday, Altimeter Growth encouraged shareholders to approve the proposal, saying the US Securities and Exchange Commission had declared Grab’s registration statement “effective”, thereby clearing the way for the deal.
Grab chief financial officer Peter Oey said on Nov 11 during the company’s third quarter results webcast, that “subject to obtaining approval at the EGMs, we will be in a position to proceed to close the business combination with Altimeter Growth Corp and be publicly listed within a few days”.
Grab has said it would complete the listing during the fourth quarter of the year, after postponing once from the original target of the third quarter.
A prominent homegrown tech start-up in Southeast Asia, Grab’s listing would provide US investors with a fresh opportunity to invest in a fast-growing region that has been under-represented in the global stock market.
Grab’s market valuation will be closely monitored, as it could be a benchmark for valuation of other Southeast Asian start-ups planning to go public in the US in the near future. Altimeter Growth valued the Singapore company at nearly US$40 billion when they announced the merger deal in April.
Grab will receive US$4.5 billion through the deal, including a US$4 billion private investment in public equity, or PIPE.
According to its filings, Grab chief executive officer Anthony Tan will become chairman and CEO of the new company, while his co-founder, Tan Hooi Ling, will be chief operating officer and director.
The company will have four independent directors, including Uber Technologies CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Founded in 2012, Grab offers services such as ride-hailing, food delivery and mobile payment in a one-stop app under what it calls a “superapp” strategy. It is focused on Southeast Asian markets and operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia and Myanmar.
The company reported a net loss of US$988 million for the three months through September, versus a US$621 million net loss in the same period last year.