Indonesia's GoTo denies merger talks with ride-hailing rival Grab

Indonesian tech giant GoTo on Tuesday denied it is in merger discussions with Singapore-based ride-hailing rival Grab.

"The company would also like to emphasize that currently, the company is not having any discussion on such matters," said GoTo in a Tuesday filing.

The comment comes after Bloomberg reported Friday that the two companies have restarted talks for a potential merger as they look to stem losses arising from intense competition with each other.

"The company would like to emphasize that the company has an increasingly strong fundamentals and financial position," said GoTo. The firm added that it has achieved "positive adjusted EBITDA target in Q4 2023, while exceeding the top end of its full year adjusted EBITDA guidance range."

EBITDA refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, which is an alternate measure of profitability to net income.

The company is set to release its fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 results in March.

Grab closed 1.2% lower on the Nasdaq on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off in U.S. markets. Indonesian markets are closed Wednesday as millions cast their ballots.

GoTo Group was formed in May 2021 in a blockbuster merger between two of Indonesia's largest start-ups: Gojek and Tokopedia.

On Dec. 11, GoTo and TikTok announced that Tokopedia and TikTok Shop Indonesia's will be combined into an enlarged Tokopedia entity, in which TikTok will take a controlling stake of 75.01%. Over time, TikTok will pump $1.5 billion into the entity. GoTo on Jan. 31 said Tokopedia has finalized the transaction with TikTok, ByteDance's short video platform.

The deal came after Indonesia in September banned e-commerce transactions on social media platforms such as TikTok Shop and Facebook, in