Uber could be looking to sell Southeast Asia unit to Grab

Uber is planning to sell its Southeast Asia ride-hailing business to Singapore-based Grab in return for a substantial stake in the company, CNBC reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. The purported move mirrors an exit it pulled off in China, where it lost billions of dollars before finally selling out to rival Didi Chuxing:

The deal, apparently is part of a strategy to help Uber reduce costs ahead of a planned IPO. The company lost a mind-boggling $4.5 billion in 2017 on $7.5 billion in sales – which means there’s plenty of demand for its services, but it needs to do some serious streamlining and focus on its strongest regions.

Since taking up the reigns at one of the largest privately held companies in the world, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has been working towards cleaning the company's bad reputation, its tons of negative baggage and figure out a way to transform it into a business that will be ready to IPO sometime in 2019.

"We strive to be and should be a brand that is as beloved as Amazon and Google," Khosrowshahi had said at a Goldman Sachs' conference last week. He also laid out the the company’s ambitions, which included dabbling its hands on food delivery, autonomous vehicles and even buses and two-wheelers.

Singapore-based Grab claims to have 95 percent market share in southeast Asia and recently held a $2.5 billion round of funding in July 2017. It operates in more than 100 cities and has a presence in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar, among other countries