WSJ : Grab Plans $1.25 Billion Fund Raise; To Spend on Buybacks, M&As

Grab Plans $1.25 Billion Fund Raise; To Spend on Buybacks, M&As
The Southeast Asian ride-hailing and delivery company will use the funds to boost the “strategic flexibility” of its business, which may include potential acquisitions

Key Points
  • Grab plans to raise $1.25B via convertible bonds for buybacks and acquisitions.
  • The funds will boost Grab’s strategic flexibility, including potential acquisitions, while maintaining a high deal standard.
  • Grab denies merger talks with Gojek, emphasizing organic growth and prudent capital allocation.

Grab plans to raise $1.25 billion via convertible bonds to fund buybacks and acquisitions, it said after issuing a fresh denial about a potential merger with Indonesian rival GoTo Gojek Tokopedia.

The Southeast Asian ride-hailing and delivery company said it will use proceeds from the offering of convertible notes, due in 2030, to boost the “strategic flexibility” of it business, which may include potential acquisitions. It emphasized that it will continue to maintain a high bar for any deals.

Singapore-based Grab, which also provides financial services on its super app, will also use the funds to buy back shares under its previously announced $500 million buyback program. It has repurchased $226 million worth of shares to date.

The plans come shortly after the Nasdaq-listed company said in a stock exchange filing that it is not engaged in merger talks with Gojek. Grab has repeatedly denied media reports saying that it is in discussions with the Indonesian ride-hailing and delivery firm to combine their businesses in a multibillion merger.

The filing suggests that the companies either failed to reach an agreement or have decided not to pursue or continue discussions for now, Citi Research analysts said.

Grab has reiterated that organic growth remains a priority, Citi said in a note, suggesting that it will be prudent in capital allocation and will only consider inorganic opportunities like M&A when it makes sense to shareholders and aligns with business prospects.

The company’s business momentum remains strong and Citi expects it to deliver solid organic business growth and better margins ahead.

In a separate release, Grab said its business in Indonesia has continued to benefit from solid demand and ride volumes in April and May, which it attributed to its focus on affordability and expansion in the country.

FT : UK families ‘seize moment’ to buy exclusive London homes as non-doms retrea

UK families ‘seize moment’ to buy exclusive London homes as non-doms retreat
Domestic buyers take advantage of tumbling prices as new non-dom tax regime cools interest from abroad

UK families are “seizing the moment” to snap up bargain luxury homes in exclusive London postcodes as a dwindling pool of international buyers, deterred by new non-dom tax rules, leads to double-digit price drops.

Estate agents say families living in prime areas of outer London, such as Barnes or Chiswick, who may not have previously been able to afford to step up into prime inner areas of the capital, are securing a foothold in the most exclusive neighbourhoods, such as Belgravia and Kensington.

“We have seen a lot more domestic market buying in prime central London because some sellers have adjusted prices to the point where they are affordable,” said Matt Thompson, head of sales at Chestertons.

“There’s definitely people eyeing family houses in Belgravia that they can now buy at less than £2,000 per square feet, which was not possible a few years ago,” added Stuart Bailey, head of prime central London sales at Knight Frank. 

“Where a property has been listed for six to 12 months, double-digit reductions mean they are selling. Switched-on domestic buyers are seizing the moment while there’s less competition.”

Driving the change is a sharp cooling of interest in London by wealthy international buyers put off from setting up home in the capital by Labour’s new non-dom tax regime and stamp duty changes.

Mark Redfern, senior sales director at UK Sotheby’s International Realty, said prime central London was “definitely a challenging market” with price falls driven by recent tax changes affecting non-doms.

The withdrawal of these buyers, traditionally dominant in the prime market for £5mn-plus homes, has reduced competition in areas such as Kensington, Belgravia and Knightsbridge.

House prices in Kensington and Chelsea have fallen to their lowest level since 2013, according to Financial Times analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics published last month.

Data from Knight Frank, published on Monday, showed that the number of sales of prime residential London property in the six months to May fell 7 per cent versus the previous year. 

The number of new prospective buyers registering for prime homes fell by 13 per cent over the same period, Knight Frank data also showed.

“Serious sellers, looking to sell in the next year, are cutting their asking prices to attract buyers,” Bailey said.

Chestertons’ Thompson reported price reductions of 5 per cent on some prime homes since January, translating to hundreds of thousands of pounds on a £5mn-plus property.

“People are thinking they couldn’t buy in that area, and they are definitely thinking again,” he added.

Data compiled for the FT by TwentyCi, a property analytics company, illustrated the sharp cooling of the prime market.

In the year to the end of May, 706 price reductions were reported on prime central London homes, against 1,333 new instructions, according to its data. This compared with 610 price cuts on 1,484 new instructions, the same time a year ago.

Prime homes were taking 50 per cent longer to sell, with the time to reach a deal in the second quarter averaging 216 days, compared with 144 days over the same period in 2024.

Under the old rules, non-doms could live in the UK without paying tax on overseas income and gains. Since April, this has been limited to four years and means their worldwide assets are subject to UK inheritance tax.

With elite international buyers considering other locations, such as Milan or Paris, opportunities have opened for UK families to buy into more exclusive London postcodes.

“For domestic buyers, if they want to buy in the most aspirational locations, they have less competition and more properties available,” said Lucian Cook, director of residential research with Savills, the estate agent.

“The balance of demand is changing and this is probably the biggest change in the prime market.”

FT : China’s $1.1tn asset manager becomes star player on ‘national team’

China’s $1.1tn asset manager becomes star player on ‘national team’
State-owned Central Huijin in spotlight after big intervention in domestic stock markets to boost economy

From recapitalising rural banks to propping up the stock market, Central Huijin, an arm of China’s sovereign wealth fund, has supported the country’s financial system since its launch two decades ago. But over the past year, the scale of its interventions has thrust it into the spotlight. 

Central Huijin’s holdings of exchange traded funds soared past Rmb1tn ($140bn) in 2024, a seven-fold increase year on year, as the government ordered stimulus measures aimed at boosting the economy.

Beijing has made clear its desire to build bigger financial institutions to help its already state-dominated financial sector navigate economic and market turmoil. Central Huijin, with both its direct buying and vast portfolio of firms, is a key component of this initiative.

During the escalation of the trade war with the US in April, Central Huijin openly pledged to support markets and, for the first time, described itself in a statement as a member of the “national team” of prominent state-backed investors in the country’s markets.

“Central Huijin is obviously being asked to play a big role,” said George Magnus, a research associate at Oxford university’s China Centre.


“It will be called upon more and more to intervene in the financial sector and the stock market as China adapts to the reality of higher non-performing loans, tighter credit conditions, and weaker asset prices,” he added.

Central Huijin is also a crucial tool as the government reshapes a sprawling financial sector that remains largely closed off from the outside world.

“Huijin is becoming a strategic co-ordinator,” said one Beijing-based policy adviser. “It’s a convenient tool for the state to lever when it needs to tighten its grip on vital financial resources.”

Since its launch in 2003, the fund has historically acted as the government’s lender of last resort in opaque rescues of regional banks. It also holds controlling or strategic stakes in major lenders, such as ICBC and China Everbright, as well as the troubled insurance units spun off from Anbang, a Chinese financial conglomerate that entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2024 after years of struggling with insolvency.


The fund became a fully-owned subsidiary of China’s sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, in 2007.

Following a sweeping leadership reshuffle and last September’s stimulus move, the fund has significantly broadened its portfolio, going deeper into ETFs and expanding across the financial system.

It is now led by Zhang Qingsong, 59, a former central banker with three decades of experience in China’s financial system. He also held senior management posts at lenders such as Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China, which gave him deep familiarity with Huijin’s expansive portfolio.

In February, the Ministry of Finance transferred its controlling stakes in China’s three largest bad-debt managers — Cinda, Orient and Great Wall — to Huijin, at no cost. 

Its total assets under management amount to $1.1tn as of June 2024, according to company filings, but it also has stakes in a portfolio of state financial institutions with total assets of at least $29tn, according to Financial Times calculations — a huge proportion of the country’s entire financial assets.

Huijin did not respond to a request for comment.

Although April was the first time Huijin had publicly declared itself as playing in the position of state intervention fund in the “national team” — or in the language of China’s market regulator, as a “quasi-stabilisation fund” — it has acted similarly in the past to help set a floor for China’s stock market during times of distress. 

It previously played the same role propping up shares during the market rout of 2015, investing an estimated Rmb1.2tn in more than 900 companies to prevent a meltdown. It has exited many of those holdings since 2021, though it still held stakes in 165 listed companies as of the first quarter of 2025, according to the Wind financial data service.


But from early 2024, its focus shifted to increasing its holdings of exchange traded funds tracking major indices, which avoided issues arising from single-stock purchases.

The buying intensified in April following Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs, when Huijin pledged to step up ETF purchases “when necessary.” An estimate from a Shanghai-based analyst not allowed to publicly speak on the matter suggests ETF purchases by Huijin in April alone may have reached Rmb200bn. 

Huijin’s expanded role this year has been helped by broader co-ordinated moves from other regulators, with significant support from the People’s Bank of China. As China seeks to consolidate its financial sector, Huijin can help facilitate mergers and expedite approval times.

Its activity has also coincided with an official push for higher dividends in China, while a decline in mutual fund fees is expected to reduce its costs.

A senior executive at a Beijing fund house said that it was hard for managers to keep fees at previous, higher levels, given the “giant” inflows from Huijin.

Many analysts anticipate that an intervention fund such as Central Huijin’s would ultimately exit the market after holding positions for several years, but this could take longer than usual, given the size of purchases this time.

And, with the mainland’s A-share markets now carrying more strategic weight than they did a decade ago, and valuations still at low levels, the Shanghai-based analyst suggested Huijin and the authorities may be willing to hold positions for “20, 30, even 40 years”.

“I don’t see any near-term risk of the national team exiting the market or policy turning negative,” he said. “It is not the story at the moment.”

FT : One in five people do not expect to have as many children as they want

One in five people do not expect to have as many children as they want
UN study suggests economic strains, including job insecurity, among the biggest barriers to parenthood

Nearly one in five people in 14 countries do not expect to have the number of children they desire, largely because of economic and social barriers, according to a UN study.

“Fertility rates are falling, in large part because many feel unable to create the families they want, and that is the real crisis,” said Natalia Kanem, executive director at the United Nations Population Fund, which is behind the report published on Tuesday.

Prohibitive costs of raising children, job insecurity, housing, the lack of a suitable partner and sexism were all obstacles to parenthood, Kanem said, adding: “Women in particular are being unfairly blamed.”

The study is based on a survey of 14,000 people across developed and developing countries, including the US, Germany, Nigeria and Thailand, that together represent more than a third of the global population.

Fertility rates — the number of births per woman over a lifetime — have fallen below 2.1 births per woman in over half of all countries, the threshold needed for population stability without immigration.

Among the survey respondents of reproductive age, 18 per cent did not expect to have the size of family they want. Just 38 per cent of people aged 50 or over said they had reached their ideal number of children, while 31 per cent had fewer than desired.

Most people wanted children, according to the study, with 38 per cent of women and 35 per cent of men across the 14 countries saying they ideally wanted two children and another 15 per cent of people desiring three children.


Economic constraints were among the most frequently cited barriers to parenthood, with 39 per cent of respondents mentioning financial limitations, 21 per cent citing job insecurity and 19 per cent pointing to housing. Health and fertility issues also play a role. A lack of suitable partners, was another obstacle, according to the survey conducted in November and December.

“The answer lies in responding to what people say they need: paid family leave, affordable fertility care, and supportive partners,” Kanem said.


The OECD has warned that the global decline in fertility poses a threat to future prosperity, as it increases fiscal pressures because of ageing populations. However, others, such as economist Oded Galor, have argued that declining fertility combined with higher education levels could enhance long-term prosperity.

The UN research supports similar national surveys. In the US, Gallup polling has consistently found since the 1970s that most people consider two or more children to be the ideal family size, even as the national fertility rate has fallen below replacement level, with similar findings from Japan.

In the UK, research has shown that only a quarter of millennials who want children are actively trying to conceive.

“Whilst some individuals [in the UK] desire to remain child-free, the empirical evidence suggests that there are a significant number who want children, but are currently unable to have them,” said Ann Berrington, professor of demography at the University of Southampton, adding that economic and health factors, or being unable to find the right partner, were among the reasons.

The UN report also notes that in some contexts, particularly in South Africa and Nigeria, a minority of under-50s expect to have more children than they would ideally like, citing a lack of support and low quality sexual and reproductive healthcare.

FT : ‘We’re not that strong’: China’s Huawei says it lags US in chipmaking

‘We’re not that strong’: China’s Huawei says it lags US in chipmaking
Founder Ren Zhengfei plays down his company’s technology amid trade talks between Washington and Beijing

Huawei’s founder said the US was exaggerating the Chinese chipmaker’s capabilities and played down his company’s technology amid trade talks between Beijing and Washington that include discussions of export controls.

In a rare interview with China’s state-run People’s Daily on Tuesday, Ren Zhengfei said Huawei’s Ascend chip, the main rival to Nvidia’s products in China, “still lags behind the US by one generation”. He added that the “US has exaggerated Huawei’s capabilities — we’re not that strong yet”.

Ren’s comments come as Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has sounded the alarm in recent weeks on Huawei’s progress with its artificial intelligence chips, saying Washington’s limits on the US chipmaker selling to China have given rise to a “formidable” competitor that threatens to undermine American dominance of AI technology.

The US and China began a new round of trade talks on Monday in London, which included discussion of Washington’s export controls on key technology.

During the first round of talks in Geneva, the US did not discuss export controls. However, Beijing’s recent use of restrictions on some critical rare earths and minerals used in car manufacturing — which threatens to shut down factory lines in the US, Europe and Japan — has brought the issue into trade discussions.

Huawei has benefited from Washington’s ban on shipments of Nvidia chips to China as Chinese tech giants have accelerated purchases of Ascend chips and made preparations to adopt Huawei’s technology.

Still, the majority of Chinese AI companies, including DeepSeek, use Nvidia chips to train the large language models that power AI tools. Domestic alternatives are increasingly used for the less complex task of calling upon the models to generate responses in tools such as chatbots.

Analysts and Huawei researchers have previously complained about technical glitches in using the company’s chips for training LLMs, citing difficulty in making the chips work together and distributing computing workloads across them.

Ren on Tuesday hinted the company had made strides to resolve these issues, saying Huawei could “compensate” for poorer performance through cluster computing, which involves linking multiple chips to boost AI server power.

“Using clustering and stacking, our computing results are comparable to the world’s best,” he said.

Huawei’s new CloudMatrix 384 AI server is the centrepiece of its strategy to compete with Nvidia by assembling a large number of chips to bolster bandwidth capacity and handle more data. The server connects 384 AI processors using Huawei’s optical technology.

Several Huawei customers are already testing the CloudMatrix server, working with the company’s engineers to resolve issues related to the heat generated by the large number of chips operating in unison and the machine's weight, said a person involved in the testing.

Huawei’s biggest challenge was creating “an ecosystem” of developers that will use its platform to build AI models, the person added. One of Nvidia’s advantages is its software platform Cuda, which developers say is easy to use.

Ren said Huawei was investing Rmb180bn ($25bn) a year on research and development, with Rmb60bn going into basic research not aimed at developing products but making breakthrough discoveries.

Ren said China had distinct advantages when building out its technological capabilities.

“AI depends on abundant electricity and advanced network infrastructure,” he said. “China’s power generation and grid systems are world-class. Our telecoms infrastructure is the most advanced in the world.”

>>> US After Hours Summary: CASY +8.6% higher on earnings, dividend hike; QTRX +

After Hours Summary: CASY +8.6% higher on earnings, dividend hike; QTRX +7.9% higher on insider buy; AIRS -11.3% lower on stock offering; SEZL +1% files antitrust lawsuit against SHOP

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: SKIL +16.3%, CASY +8.6% (also increases dividend), T +0.2%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: QTRX +7.9% (Director bought 93113 shares), CNS +4.9% (reports May AUM), NOVT +2% (commits to restructuring plan), CVEO +1.8% (awarded a A$250 contract renewal with met coal producer), SEZL +1% (SEZL files antitrust lawsuit against SHOP; Sezzle also reaffirms FY25 guidance), NAGE +0.9% (announces study on Nicotinamide Riboside), MNKD +0.7% (to highlight data from recent studies), FDX +0.4% (increases dividend), GRAB +0.4% (announces $1.25 bln convertible notes offering), NNE +0.3% (stock offering by selling shareholders), MELI +0.2% (withdraws proposal for shareholders to vote on redomestication), RBLX +0.1% (names new CFO)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: CVGW -15.1%, LAKE -12.8%, LMNR -7.6% (also announces citrus sales and marketing operations merger with Sunkist Growers)

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: ONDS -11.8% (stock offering; also secures $14.3 mln purchase order), AIRS -11.3% (launches 3.16 mln share offering), CBRL -3.4% (private offering of $275 mln convertible notes), XMTR -3.3% ($225 mln convertible notes offering), NATR -1.9% (files for 2,854,607 share offering by selling shareholder), ACAD -1.3% (appeals court rules in favor of Acadia in NUPLAZID patent case), LODE -1.1% (amends Interest Purchase Agreement), CAR -0.7% (CFO to step down, names new CFO), DRS -0.5% (awarded a $41 mln contract from the Naval Sea Systems Command), GTM -0.5% (6% workforce reduction; also reaffirms guidance), SANA -0.4% (to present data), PARA -0.3% (CFO to depart), CMCSA -0.3% (resolves price to be paid by Disney to NBCU to purchase NBCU's interest in Hulu), BKD -0.1% (reports May 2025 occupancy)

FT : OpenAI’s expected subscription revenue doubles to $10bn

OpenAI’s expected subscription revenue doubles to $10bn
Company behind the ChatGPT tool is still lossmaking, as are its biggest rivals

OpenAI’s annual recurring revenue has almost doubled to $10bn, on the back of surging demand for its artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT.

The company said the measure of expected revenue from subscriptions had soared from the $5.5bn it hit at the end of last year.

OpenAI has grown at a breakneck pace since rolling out ChatGPT in late 2022. The chatbot was the fastest consumer app to reach 100mn weekly active users and now claims more than 500mn.

That trajectory is mirrored by other leading AI groups including coding tool Cursor, which has raced to $500mn in ARR this year from less than $100mn in 2024. Anthropic tripled its ARR to $3bn between January and May this year, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The growth in recurring revenue suggests AI tools are beginning to justify the hype that has surrounded them over the past two years, with individual consumers and companies willing to pay to use them.

Nonetheless, all three companies are lossmaking. The start-ups have gained traction in part because of investors’ willingness to write them cheques of unprecedented size.

OpenAI is in the process of raising $40bn from SoftBank and other investors, while Anthropic has the backing of Google, Amazon and a number of top venture capital firms. Cursor-parent Anysphere recently raised $900mn from investors including Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, Accel and Andreessen Horowitz.

The outlay from strategic investors and venture capitalists has turbocharged the growth of a handful of AI companies, which backers hope can expand quickly enough to crowd out competitors.

Even so, there are signs adoption of AI tools may be slowing in some areas.

The proportion of US businesses paying to use AI models has quadrupled to about 40 per cent in the past two years, according to fintech company Ramp. But that growth stalled in May for the first time in 10 months, and Ramp executives have suggested most groups that are willing to pay for the service are already doing so.

OpenAI does not expect to be profitable until 2029, when it has forecast revenues of $125bn, according to documents shared with investors.

The group’s recurring revenue comes from consumers paying for ChatGPT, roughly 3mn subscriptions from business and education customers, and sales of OpenAI’s application programming interface, or API, according to a spokesperson.

The San Francisco-headquartered company is expanding in multiple directions. In recent weeks it has acquired io, the hardware start-up of former Apple design chief Sir Jony Ive, for $6.4bn and is in the process of acquiring code editing company and Cursor rival Windsurf, said people familiar with that deal.

OpenAI is also working with Donald Trump’s administration on Stargate, a massive data centre project which chief executive Sam Altman claims will underpin further advances in the technology.

CNBC first reported on OpenAI’s ARR milestone.

>>> Walt Disney finally resolves price to be paid by Disney to NBCU to purchase

Walt Disney finally resolves price to be paid by Disney to NBCU to purchase NBCU's interest in Hulu
  • On November 1, 2023, a subsidiary of NBC Universal provided notice to Disney of its exercise of its right under a put/call arrangement to require Disney to purchase NBCU's 33% interest in Hulu at a value based on NBCU's equity ownership percentage of the greater of Hulu's equity fair value, determined pursuant to a contractual appraisal process, or a guaranteed floor value of $27.5 bln.
  • Pursuant to the contractual appraisal process that was completed on June 9, 2025, an additional $438.7 mln is payable by Disney to NBCU to purchase NBCU's interest in Hulu. This amount will be recorded in "Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests" and thus reduce "Net income attributable to Disney" in its Condensed Consolidated Statements. This amount is also expected to be excluded when Disney reports Adjusted EPS, and therefore is not expected to impact Disney's previous guidance on fiscal 2025 Adjusted EPS. The acquisition of NBCU's interest in Hulu will close on or before July 24, 2025.
  • "We are pleased this is finally resolved. We have had a productive partnership with NBCUniversal, and we wish them the best of luck. Completing the Hulu acquisition paves the way for a deeper and more seamless integration of Hulu's general entertainment content with Disney+ and, soon, with ESPN's direct-to-consumer product, providing an unrivaled value proposition for consumers."