The acquisition includes Trans-cab’s taxi and car rental business, maintenance workshop, and fuel pup operations. Grab expects the current transaction to complete in Q4 2023.
Heaptalk, Jakarta — Grab Holdings Limited announced signing an agreement for Grab Rentals Pte to acquire 100% of the shares in Trans-cab Holdings Ltd. This acquisition value is estimated up to US$100 million, and the transaction is expected to close in Q4 of 2023. The company also reveals the acquisition includes Trans-cab’s taxi and car rental business, maintenance workshop, and fuel pup operations.
The General Manager of Trans-cab, Jasmine Tan, notices consumer behavior has shifted. The company has recognized the need to digitize the business for some time. Therefore, the company will ensure its drivers can continue to be competitive. Through this acquisition move, Jasmine has robust optimism this deal will protect the driver’s future.
“Grab’s industry-leading tech will bolster our taxi drivers more productively and safely while serving their passengers better. We know that Grab cares deeply about their driver-partners, just as we do. We are entering this agreement with dull assurance that Grab will do their best to safeguard our taxi drivers’ livelihoods, ” Jasmine added.
Trans-cab is Singapore’s third largest taxi operator. The company has a combined taxi and private-hire-vehicle (PHV) fleet of more than 2,500 vehicles and is accretive to Grab’s business on a net income basis. According to Trans-cab’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, the company had a total equity of US$62.7 million in 2020. In 2021, the company also reported a net profit of around US$8.7 million and revenue of US$81.1 million.
The Managing Director of Grab Singapore, Yee Wee Tang, conveyed, “Trans-cab is a well-run taxi company. We see this as a strategic match with win-win-win outcomes for all. By boosting numerous drivers on our platform and helping them to operate more efficiently, we improve how quickly and reliably we find a ride for our platform and helping them to operate more efficiently.”
Following this strategic acquisition, Grab plans to launch an enhanced Grab Driver application integrated with the Mobile Display Units in Trans-cab taxis. The applications will enable Trans-cab drivers to manage their earnings and receive bookings from the Grab platform and Trans-cab’s existing call center through a single platform. With Grab’s allocation technology, Trans-cab drivers will be assigned bookings highly efficiently an intelligently, maximizing their productivity to earn more.
Grab also plans to explore combining software with vehicle hardware to enhance the driving experience further. Additionally, this ride-hailing company based in Singapore intends to use tech to improve the taxi-sharing experience, which is currently done manually between taxi drivers on an ad-hoc basis.
