My personal thoughts on $GRAB's FoodPanda Taiwan acquisition:

First of all, here are the facts we know.

- The deal will go through for $600M in 2H26.

- FoodPanda Taiwan generated ~$1.8B in GMV and is profitable on an Adj. EBITDA basis as of 2025.

- This marks Grab's expansion into its 9th market.

- $GRAB's deliveries operation in SEA (FY25) came in at $14.2B in GMV. This acquisition will boost GMV by 12%.

- $GRAB said the deal should add at least $60M in incremental Adj. EBITDA in 2028.

- Grab will gain coverage to 21 cities in Taiwan.

- $GRAB Taiwan will be the 6th largest market after ID, TH, MY, PH and SG.

I personally like this deal a lot, for three main reasons.

One, it shows that Grab is playing offence. Its market share in SEA grew yet again in 2025, and it clearly believes it has secured the lead in the region.

Second, they're putting the cash to work. It is no secret that their $6B cash pile has been sitting on the sidelines to be used on some major consolidation deals within the region. The prevailing rumour was a $GOTO deal, that has dragged on for years, with no end in sight. This deployment of cash is great for shareholders.

Lastly, Grab is paying just $600M. This is compared to the $1.25B $UBER was willing to pay (and had already agreed in 2024). This represents a 52% discount on an asset that has likely only gotten more valuable operationally.

Now, a probably under-discussed aspect of this deal, is that $UBER is the other major player in Taiwan. Remember that Dara sits on $GRAB's board and is likely aware of this deal (would not rule him out being a major proponent of it). $GRAB acquiring FoodPanda would make this a duopoly, one that would sit comfortably with regulators, $GRAB and $UBER. A win-win-win.

FoodPanda Taiwan is also profitable, which I believe is a key factor for $GRAB in acquisitions of this type. This will enable $GRAB to simply optimise it marginally, while letting operations run without a major overhaul, enabling management to focus on other key objectives such as digital financial services in SEA, and competition in Indonesia and Vietnam.

Once FoodPanda Taiwan users migrate to the Grab app, they can then layer on financial services, groceries and potentially mobility (although I would prefer them to avoid this). This is the same cross-sell strategy that has driven their unit-economics across SEA.

This is about as clean as an M&A deal can get, and as a shareholder, I am in favour of this. (Can't say the same about the Stash deal)

What are your thoughts?