Singapore — A few years after launching Grab Holdings in 2012, Anthony Tan got a piece of advice from Jack Ma. The co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding told the entrepreneur that life is a tsunami. When you’re up on the wave, get ready for the crash, he said.

In 2020, that all came to pass. The coronavirus sent cities across Southeast Asia into lockdown. Demand for ride-hailing, a key business, plunged. Then around December, its big plan to merge with arch rival Gojek collapsed...

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