Moody's upgrades Grab

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded the corporate family rating and the senior secured term loan rating of Grab Holdings Inc. to B2 from B3 and changed the outlook to stable from rating under review. This concludes the review for upgrade initiated on April 15.

The upgrade and review follow the company's announcement on Wednesday that it had completed a merger with a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, Altimeter Growth Corp., the agency said. The merger resulted in Grab becoming a publicly listed company.

"The rating upgrade reflects the improvement in Grab's liquidity and financial flexibility following its successful public listing," said Stephanie Cheong, a Moody's assistant vice president and analyst, in a press release. "More importantly, the listing fully eliminates the redemption risk associated with its convertible redeemable preference shares, which had weighed on the company's credit profile."

The agency noted the public listing added $4.4 billion to its cash balance, which at Sept. 30, was $5.2 billion.

"That said, we are expecting Grab to maintain a prudent approach toward any acquisitions or investments, such as maintaining a large cash buffer relative to its operating cash needs over at least the next three years," added Cheong, who also is Moody's lead analyst for Grab.

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