Grab Holdings shares gained 17.5% over two Nasdaq sessions after the Southeast Asian superapp raised its 2026 forecasts, reporting a record 57.2 million monthly transacting users and a 27% rise in third-quarter revenue to $1.11 billion.

The Singapore-based company published its results on Tuesday. Its shares rose 9.1% in New York trading that day and another 7.7% on Wednesday to close at $3.36, according to Nasdaq data. Tuesday's turnover of 153.6 million shares was more than twice the stock's average daily volume.

Grab's numbers offer a read on everyday spending across the eight Southeast Asian countries it serves, from meals and groceries to rides and small loans. The quarter showed demand holding up despite costlier fuel. Its financial services arm, which includes digital banks in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, posted positive segment adjusted EBITDA for the first time.

The rally still leaves the stock about 46% below its 52-week high of $6.235, according to Nasdaq, which puts the 52-week low at $2.67. The shares had closed at $2.71 as recently as Oct. 30.

Grab's users keep ordering as fuel costs bite

Monthly transacting users rose 20% from 47.7 million a year earlier and from 53.9 million in the second quarter. Gross merchandise value for on-demand services, meaning deliveries and mobility combined, rose 18% to $6.8 billion, or 22% at constant exchange rates. Revenue grew 30% on that basis.

Chief Executive Anthony Tan said the user record came "despite the elevated fuel prices and macroeconomic headwinds across the region."

Grab paid for part of that growth. Incentives to drivers, merchants and consumers totaled $737 million. On-demand incentives equaled 10.7% of on-demand GMV, 64 basis points higher than a year earlier, which the company tied to spending on driver supply and new product launches. The ratio eased 17 basis points from the second quarter.

Deliveries revenue grew 21% to $561 million on GMV of $4.5 billion. The unit's adjusted EBITDA rose 58% to $123 million, or 2.7% of GMV compared with 2.1% a year earlier, helped by advertising: active advertisers on Grab's self-serve platform rose 39%.

Mobility revenue rose 10% to $349 million. GMV rose 14% and transactions 21%, which Grab attributed to cheaper ride options drawing more users. The segment's margin held at 8.9% of GMV. Active drivers rose 20% from a year earlier, and electric vehicles handled 18% of completed four-wheel trips, up from 13% in the first quarter. In Indonesia, Grab competes with GoTo, which reported its own third-quarter results on Oct. 29.

Grab's financial services arm swings to an EBITDA profit

Financial services revenue rose 124% to $201 million as Grab consolidated Indonesia's Superbank from June and U.S. investment platform Stash from the start of the quarter. Segment adjusted EBITDA swung to a $12 million profit from a $28 million loss a year earlier and a $15 million loss in the second quarter.

The gross loan portfolio tripled to $2.7 billion; excluding Superbank, it grew 115%. Nonperforming loans, measured at 90 days past due, were 2.6% of the book, and expected-credit-loss reserves of 6.5% covered them about 2.4 times. Customer deposits at GXS Bank in Singapore, GXBank in Malaysia and Superbank reached $2.7 billion.

Thin net profit and $400 million of buybacks

Operating profit quadrupled to $108 million from $27 million. Profit for the period rose only to $18 million from $17 million, held back by a $57 million net fair-value loss on financial assets and liabilities and a $12 million impairment on an equity-accounted investment. Grab said its bottom line would keep moving with fair-value measurements and other nonoperating items.

Adjusted EBITDA rose 73% to a record $237 million, lifting the margin to 21.3% of revenue from 15.6%.

The company raised its 2026 revenue forecast to $4.15 billion to $4.20 billion and its adjusted EBITDA forecast to $790 million to $800 million.

Grab bought back $400 million of shares in September and October and has $500 million left under its programs. Once those are used, it said, repurchases since the start of 2024 would total $1.75 billion and retire more than 10% of its shares at current prices. Net cash liquidity slipped to $5.0 billion at the end of September from $5.4 billion three months earlier.

The fourth quarter will carry a $60 million break fee after Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission rejected, in October, Grab's planned purchase of Delivery Hero's foodpanda Taiwan business. The charge will reduce reported profit but is excluded from adjusted EBITDA and does not change the guidance.

Using the reported figures for the first three quarters, the new range implies fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $231 million to $241 million, roughly level with the third quarter's record, on revenue of $1.09 billion to $1.14 billion, by Capital Times calculations.