Welcome to this week’s edition of top stock market highlights.
Grab Holdings (NASDAQ: GRAB)
Grab recently released its first quarter of 2025 (1Q 2025) earnings and reported encouraging financial numbers and operating statistics.
The ride-hailing company reported an 18.4% year-on-year increase in revenue to US$773 million, aided by broad-based year-on-year increases in revenue across its three divisions.
Operating loss stood at US$21 million for 1Q 2025, but Grab reported a net profit of US$10 million for the quarter because of significantly higher finance income.
The company generated a positive free cash flow of US$47 million for the quarter, reversing the negative free cash flow of US$25 million a year ago.
Diving into each division’s performance, the Deliveries division, which is Grab’s largest, saw revenue climb 18% year on year to US$415 million.
Gross merchandise value (GMV) increased by 16% year on year to US$3.1 billion.
The Mobility division also did well, registering a 15% year-on-year increase in revenue to US$282 million, with GMV expanding by 17% year on year to US$1.8 billion.
The Financial Services division is the smallest of the three but saw more rapid growth, with revenue jumping 36% year on year to US$75 million.
Grab’s loan portfolio surged by 56% year on year to US$566 million.
Monthly transacting users (MTUs) for Grab’s platform increased by 16% year on year to 44.5 million.
Grab is projecting revenue of between US$3.3 billion to US$3.4 billion for this year, up 19% to 22% year on year.
Sheng Siong (SGX: OV8)
Sheng Siong also released its 1Q 2025 earnings recently, and the supermarket operator continued to see increases in its gross margin and net profit.
Revenue increased by 7.1% year on year to S$403 million, contributed by the opening of eight new stores in 1Q 2025 and 2024, along with higher festive sales during Hari Raya in March.
Gross profit margin continued its climb, rising from 29.4% in 1Q 2024 to 30.3% in the latest quarter.
As a result, Sheng Siong saw its gross profit climb 10.2% year on year to S$122 million.
The retailer also enjoyed higher rental income by leasing out more space, which enabled its “other income” to jump 18.1% year on year to S$4.7 million.
Net profit increased by 6.1% year on year to S$38.5 million.
Free cash flow, however, fell by a third year on year to S$22.9 million because of higher working capital requirements.
The group recently secured six additional retail locations in locations such as Tengah and Punggol.
In addition, the supermarket operator also secured two private retail locations at KINEX Mall and Cathay Building.
These six locations are expected to open by 3Q 2025, thus taking the total number of new stores this year to eight.
Management is waiting for the results from four tenders.
On the flip side, China was a dampener for the group as it reported a loss for the quarter because of high operating expenses from the opening of its sixth store in Kunming.
Fortunately, China only made up 2.8% of Sheng Siong’s total revenue for 1Q 2025.
DoorDash (NYSE: DASH)
DoorDash, which owns two-thirds of the restaurant delivery market in the US, has made an offer to purchase UK-based Deliveroo Plc for US$3.6 billion.
DoorDash is offering US$2.40 per share for the UK-based food delivery company, which values the latter at US$3.6 billion.
The move will help DoorDash strengthen its international operations by allowing it to access the UK market and urban areas in Europe.
Both parties are in talks regarding the offer, and DoorDash has until 23 May to make a firm offer for Deliveroo.
Deliveroo went public in London back in March 2021, and its shares have plunged 62% since then, valuing it at US$2.9 billion based on its recent close.
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Disclosure: Royston Yang does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
