Grab's share price fall reflects some difficult realities for the company

SHARES of digital services platform Grab closed at US$5.51 on the Nasdaq last Friday (Jan 28). This means almost half of the US$40 billion market value the Singapore-based company had garnered for its initial public offering has been wiped off - all in just 2 months.

Grab made its trading debut on Dec 2, 2021, closing 20.5 per cent lower on the first day after consummating its merger with special purpose acquisition company Altimeter. It broke below US$6 about a fortnight ago. The counter has declined 22.7 per cent in the year to date.

Granted, tech stocks have been routed since the beginning of this year due to concerns over inflation and rising interest rates. But the plunge in Grab's share price is greater than the 11.43 per cent slide in the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index during the same period. Thus, the precipitous drop in Grab's share price should not be wholly attributed to the bearish market sentiment.