Grab’s home country is getting more expensive
It’s not Singapore.
The Edge (and earlier New Straits Times) ran stories around the change of guard at PNB with Rick Ramli, an internal candidate, being named a successor today.
The Malaysianist readers would know this as early as December 👇
As always, the newsletter owes everything to its sources, most of whom are subscribers.
They’re the reason this tiny, independent one-man operation keeps punching above its weight.
We don’t get things 100% right all the time, but when we do, we really do.
December’s news break and analysis here:
Oh, it also just dawned on me that outgoing PNB chief Abdul Rahman Ahmad is Malaysia’s government-linked yo-yo man: PNB → Sime Darby → PNB → Sime Darby (he returns as chairman of the PNB investee).
Now, that’s a superpower.
Today’s post steps back from the usual GLC/GLIC coverage and takes a stab at one of our so-called tech success stories: Grab.
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Three months before Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto walked onto a stage this month and capped two-wheel ride-hailing commissions at 8% of fares, Grab filed its 2025 annual report.
Buried in the risk disclosures was a single sentence noting that Jakarta was considering a draft decree mandating a flat 10% commission cap, reclassifying drivers as quasi-employees, and protecting their right to unionise.
Prabowo’s eventual 8% cap was even stricter than the draft, down from the roughly 20% Grab used to collect.
Grab dismissed the Indonesian cut as material to earnings. While that may be true, Prabowo’s populist gambit points to a norm in Southeast Asia.
That is to cap the platform’s take, lift the floor on driver pay, and redistribute on the platform’s tab.
And the next country in the firing line is the one Grab can least afford to lose: Malaysia (not Singapore, come on guys).