Cash now, the book later

Grab said it will buy a controlling 60 per cent of Atome Financial in cash for 1.49 billion dollars, of which 0.26 billion dollars is primary growth capital. Closing is left until the third quarter of 2027, subject to approvals. Until then the gross loan portfolio is not consolidated into Grab's financial-services segment.[1]

Atome reported a 1 billion dollar gross loan portfolio as of 30 June 2026, 25 million cumulative transacted users and more than 30,000 brands. The products are buy-now-pay-later loans, consumer cash loans, cards and digital lending. That stock still sits with Atome and seller Advance Intelligence Group until closing.[1]

The second slice scales with the credit multiple

Grab agreed to buy the remaining 40 per cent about two years after the first closing. The price uses 13.0 times annualized adjusted EBITDA and 2.5 times annualized revenue on the six months before that closing, weighted 75 per cent and 25 per cent. The equity value sits between a 2.0 billion dollar floor and a 4.5 billion dollar cap. At least 50 per cent of that consideration is to be paid in cash.[1]

Grab said it expects the financial-services segment, with Atome, to generate 500 million dollars of adjusted EBITDA and more than 6 billion dollars of gross loans by 2028, and it raised the group 2028 target to 1.7 billion dollars of adjusted EBITDA. Those figures are the company's own. Stress in consumer credit presses both the first-close timetable and the second-slice multiple. The alternative path is that the book performs through closing and the multiple stays below the cap.[1]

Who owes whom, and when the door opens

The break is in the timetable, not the sticker: instalments from 25 million users, a 1 billion dollar book, a 2027 close, then a second cash exit that still tracks the multiple. Grab said the deal is funded from existing cash and does not disturb the share-repurchase programme, which assumes today's cash buffer can carry both the purchase and a possible second slice. The observable threshold is whether closing occurs in the third quarter of 2027 and how Atome's gross loans are priced by then.[1]