Daily Briefing: Grab doubles down on food services for growth; Garlick Avenue bungalow for sale at $16.5m

And 330 childcare clinics across Singapore will raise fees in 2020.

From CNBC:

Ride-hailing company Grab is betting on its growing food delivery business to drive growth and profitability in the long term, a senior executive at the company told CNBC.

“We’ve seen tremendous growth in our food business,” Kell Jay Lim, co-chief of staff to the CEO and regional head of GrabFood, told CNBC. “We did have pockets of food delivery businesses throughout Southeast Asia already, but not across the region.”

The company says its gross merchandise volume for the food business grew 900% on-year in June 2019 from a relatively small base. GMV is a commonly tracked metric by e-commerce companies that measures the total sales dollar value of goods sold on their platforms.

For the same period, delivery volume grew seven times, according to Grab. Overall, GrabFood accounts for around 20% of Grab’s total GMV at the moment, compared to less than 5% in 2018.

Grab’s food business started in 2016, but expanded broadly across Southeast Asia last year after the start-up acquired Uber’s regional operations that included UberEats.

Read more here.

From PropertyGuru:

A detached single storey bungalow at 72 Garlick Avenue in District 10 has been put up for sale via expression of interest for $16.5m, revealed marketing agent Knight Frank.

Nestled on the highest point of Garlick Avenue, the freehold property sits on a 9,221 sqft elevated site, which enjoys a 27-metre frontage.

The property is near Sixth Avenue MRT station and is a 15-minute drive to the Orchard Road shopping belt. It is also close to Cold Storage, eateries at Guthrie House as well as various schools including Hwa Chong Institution, Raffles Girls’ School, Henry Park Primary School and Nanyang Girls’ High School.

The EOI exercise for the bungalow closes on 15 October.

Read more here.

From Channel News Asia:

About 330 childcare centres in Singapore will be raising their fees for full-day childcare for Singapore citizens next year, said the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA).

In response to media queries, the agency said they form about one-fifth of the total number of childcare centres in Singapore.

The median increase is "within five percent of fees" and “broadly comparable” to previous years, said ECDA.

All pre-schools are required to inform parents and ECDA of any increase in fees by Sep 1 of the preceding year, so that parents can make an informed choice about their child’s preschool.

Last August the government announced that it will provide more support for parents across all eligible income tiers through increased subsidies.

Read more here.