April 13, 2021 Biz in 60

Singapore's Grab to go public in $40B SPAC deal Southeast Asia's ride-hailing giant Grab has agreed to go public in the US through a merger with special purpose acquisition company, Altimeter Growth. The largest ever SPAC merger will value Singapore- based Grab at nearly 40-billion dollars. The deal underscores the frenzy on Wall Street involving so-called blank cheque companies that have raised around 99-billion dollars in the US so far this year. Ant Group to restructure as financial holding company The Alibaba- affiliated fintech giant, Ant Group, will transform itself into a financial holding company under a government- ordered overhaul. It comes after Alibaba was hit with a 2-point-75 billion dollar fine, as a result of an anti-monopoly investigation. In November, Chinese regulators suspended Ant Group's 37-billion dollar initial public offering Turkey's retail sales, industrial production up in February Turkey's retail sales for February climbed at the fastest pace in five months. Sales by volume jumped 4-point-6 percent from a year ago, helped by demand for computers, books, and telecoms equipment. Meanwhile, industrial production rose an annualised 8-point-8 percent in February, the ninth straight month of gains.