Philippine Competition Commission will review Grab-Uber deal

Office workers walk past Grab and Uber offices during their lunch hour Monday, March 26, 2018, in Singapore. Grab, a fast growing Southeast Asian ridesharing, food delivery and financial services business, said Monday that Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in it and a seat on its board as part of the deal. (Photo WONG MAY-E / ap)

The government’s competition watchdog has decided to review Grab’s takeover of its main rival here in the country, but it is not yet clear if it could still prevent Uber from stopping operations next week.

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) said on Tuesday that it would review the Grab-Uber deal, hoping to buy more time by convincing the popular ride-hailing firms to delay their transaction.

This developed days after Grab said it would acquire Uber’s operations in Southeast Asia, calling it the largest acquisition by a Southeast Asian Internet company. Uber is already scheduled to stop operations on April 8.

PCC would be reviewing the deal even after the parties involved said that the transaction was not notifiable under current PCC rules. Technically, Uber and Grab are already allowed to push through with their deal.

However, the law also allows PCC to review a non-notifiable deal if the antitrust body finds a “reasonable basis” to do so, according to PCC Chairman Arsenio Balisacan in an interview with reporters.

Notifiable transactions are mergers and acquisitions (M&As) that meet certain requirements deemed to be potentially anti-competitive in the market. Such deal is not allowed to be acted on until PCC finishes its review of the notifiable M&A.

Depending on how the companies would cooperate, the review, which would see if the acquisition is anti-competition, could take months.

The first phase of the review takes at most 75 days, Balisacan said.

However, if there would be “serious gaps in our analysis because of a lack of information,” the review could extend for another 120 days at most, he added.

What would happen in the meantime is yet to be seen.

PCC officials would meet with Grab and Uber to discuss interim measures which both PCC and the companies would have to agree on.

“The interim measure is intended so that the review would not be compromised. [Essentially, it means] that the situation that was prevailing before the consummation of the transaction would continue to prevail,” he said.

It is still unclear if the upcoming monopoly would agree on PCC’s terms. /atm