Latest news with #Hungate
CBC
04-05-2025
- Sport
- CBC
The Western Mustangs bridge team is heading to Philadelphia for major competition
A team of students from the Western University Mustangs bridge team recently won a top spot to compete at this year's Collegiate Bridge Bowl competition in Philadelphia this summer. After coming in fourth place in an online qualifying tournament where they competed against 37 other post-secondary teams from Canada and the U.S. in February, the Mustangs won travel packages to attend the bowl. Simon Hungate, a Western engineering student and captain of the bridge team, said he and his teammates Garrett Liu, Jeffrey Martinovic, Rachel Penney and Sean McBride were thrilled when they received the unexpected news. "To have the opportunity to get to go to Philadelphia and play against all the other top collegiate players in North America, we're all really excited," he said. "We're excited to represent Western, and also excited to meet other people our age who are playing the game." The Mustangs will compete against more than 20 other teams at the end of July for the top prize $10,000. A 'challenging, engaging' game Bridge is a trick-taking card game played by four players in two partnerships, using a standard deck. They compete to win tricks by bidding and strategically playing cards. Scoring in bridge rewards successful contracts and penalizes failures, with strategy, communication, and memory playing key roles. Hungate said the game forces him and his peers to think critically. "I think it's very challenging, it's engaging and it's a puzzle," said Hungate. "That idea that you're always having a problem to solve and you're always having to figure stuff out, and you're doing it with a partner… at the table, to me is extremely appealing." Hungate said his love for the game came from playing with his late grandfather during summer visits, starting when he was about 12 years old. When he started university, he was eager to form his own team and teach his friends how to play the game. Before every match, Hungate and his teammates gather weekly for practice sessions and discuss the different playing styles involved in the game. "It's a lot of fun at the end of the day," he said. "We'll sit and someone will bring baked goods or we'll have a snack, and we'll play and we'll chat." The Mustangs will compete for scholarship money, with a $10,000 prize for the top team and $3,000 for the first-place pair. "[Winning] would help us grow the game at Western because that's one of the primary goals," said Hungate. "Obviously, we want to compete and win, but we also want to get other people playing. This is a social game as well as a competitive game." The 2025 Collegiate Bridge Bowl will take place from July 31 to August 2 in Pennsylvania.
Business Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Grab raises full-year adjusted Ebitda guidance after posting US$24 million profit in Q1
[SINGAPORE] Grab on Wednesday (Apr 30) reported net profit of US$24 million for the first quarter ended Mar 31, 2025, reversing from a US$104 million loss in the previous corresponding period. The turnaround was driven by higher revenue across all segments, improved operating loss and higher net finance income which included US$33 million in foreign exchange gains, it said Revenue for the three months was US$773 million, up 18 per cent from US$653 million, surpassing the average analyst estimate of US$766 million in a Bloomberg poll. On-demand gross merchandise value grew 16 per cent year on year to US$4.9 billion from US$4.2 billion, due to on-demand monthly transacting users increasing by 18 per cent, as well as the total number of on-demand transactions growing 21 per cent. The Nasdaq-listed group's on-demand businesses cover its mobility and deliveries segments. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the quarter came in at US$106 million, up 71 per cent from US$62 million. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up In an earnings briefing after the results release, group chief executive officer Anthony Tan said the group will raise its adjusted Ebitda forecast for FY2025 to between US$460 million and US$480 million. This represents an expected 47 to 53 per cent on-year climb from the group's adjusted Ebitda in FY2024. It previously guided for adjusted full-year Ebitda of US$440 million to US$470 million, which represented a 41 to 50 per cent on-year growth. Chief operating officer Alex Hungate noted that the Singapore-based group saw strong demand under online grocery delivery arm GrabMart in March and April, resulting in monthly transacting users growing sequentially in the first quarter. The growth came despite the first quarter being seasonally soft, coupled with impact from the Chinese New Year celebrations and Ramadan fasting period. GrabMart's strong performance comes as the group was able to 'operationalise' the platform to provide groceries and food for people at home during Ramadan, replacing dining out, he said. For the first quarter, the mobility segment posted revenue of US$282 million, up 15 per cent from US$247 million. Meanwhile, the deliveries segment added 18 per cent to its top line at US$415 million, from US$350 million in the corresponding year-ago period. The group is 'trending healthily' in line with expectations, and anticipates a rebound in quarter-on-quarter growth rates across mobility and deliveries segments in the second quarter, said Hungate. Counter-cyclical approach Hungate noted that Grab does not yet see signs of consumer weakness, noting that the platform 'works on a self-adjusting basis' during a downturn in economic conditions. 'A number of new drivers will join the platform as a cushion against potential job losses, (so) we tend to get an improvement in supply conditions, which in turn reduce surge at key moments,' he said. This will then encourage more consumption and a higher use of the platform by consumers, he said. 'It's kind of a self-correcting, almost counter-cyclical approach that we see from the platform during those types of downturns,' he added. In April, the Land Transport Authority issued a 10-year street-hail service operator licence to the company through GrabCab, a subsidiary of the company's rental business GrabRentals. The company said that the increased supply of vehicles would improve efficiency of ride hailing for passengers. Meanwhile, Grab does not anticipate margin losses from recently announced new products to its platform, as it focuses on making the marketplace more efficient. For example, Shared Saver, which allows users to start a group order with people nearby, offers a lower cost of delivery for the consumer while also driving volume improvements as it amortises the same delivery cost across multiple consumers, said Hungate. 'So it's actually no extra cost to Grab, or to the marketplace,' he said. The group also received 'productivity gains' in this quarter from artificial intelligence (AI) through its management of direct marketing costs, he said. 'I think the way in which we can fine-tune our promotions and our incentives using AI is demonstrably better than it was even six months ago,' he said. Hungate highlighted that the group's monthly transacting users make up around 6 per cent of the total population of South-east Asia, and the management team is 'very focused on the other 94 per cent'. 'We think there is a lot of opportunity, and particularly with these new, affordable products, we intend to keep expanding the perimeter of our ecosystem as our main focus,' he said. Under Grab's financial services, its loan portfolio for the quarter increased 56 per cent to US$566 million, from US$363 million. Revenue for the segment grew 36 per cent to $75 million in Q1 FY2025, from US$55 million in Q1 FY2024. This growth was 'primarily driven by increased contributions mainly from lending across GrabFin and digital banks, and further optimisation of payments incentive spend', said the group. Shares of Grab last traded at US$4.79 on Tuesday in the US, up US$0.03 or 0.6 per cent, before the results were announced.
