Grab app - Illustrative image (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) of Vietnam hasrequested Grab to report on its purchase of Uber in the Southeast Asian market,including Vietnam.
Talkingto the Vietnam News Agency on March 28, deputy head of the ministry’s VietnamCompetition Authority (VCA) Trinh Anh Tuan said that his office had sent adispatch asking the Singapore-based GrabTaxi Holdings Pte Ltd to provide allrelated information and documents on this deal.
Accordingto Tuan, the requirement conforms with clause 2, Article 7 of the Law onCompetition which stipulates that the MoIT has the responsibility forcontrolling all economic concentration activities in the Vietnamese market.
Underthe Law on Competition, Merge and Acquisition (M&A) deals which greatlyaffect market competition will be limited.
Therefore,a report on Grab’s purchase of Uber must be sent to the VCA so that it canassess competition impacts before and after the deal is done.
In addition, Grab and Uber have to ask permissions of all competition agenciesin Southeast Asian countries which have the same regulation, Tuan stated.
TheVCA will have a written answer for Grab within 45 working days since it submitsall necessary documents.
Earlieron March 26, Grab announced that all of Uber’s motorcycle and taxi drivers inVietnam would have the opportunity to work for Grab from April 8.
Accordingto Grab’s announcement to acquire Uber’s Southeast Asia operations, Grab willintegrate Uber’s ridesharing and food delivery business in the region intoGrab’s existing platform.
Aspart of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Grab and UberCEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s management board.
"Thisdeal is the largest-ever of its kind in Southeast Asia," ride-hailingservice Grab said in a media release on March 26.
"Withthe combined business, Grab will drive towards becoming the number oneonline-to-offline (O2O) mobile platform in Southeast Asia and a major player infood delivery."
Itwill take over Uber’s operations and assets in Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia,Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
Uberon the same day also sent emails to its customers, confirming that “Uber willbe combining our operations with Grab to lead you in the next chapter ofridesharing in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia.”
Tominimise disruption, Grab and Uber are working to migrate Uber drivers andriders, Uber Eats customers, merchant partners and delivery partners to theGrab platform. The Uber app will continue to operate for two weeks to ensurestability for Uber drivers.
Uber’swithdrawal from Southeast Asia aims to help the corporation increase itsprofits in the context that it has invested about 10.7 billion USD since beingestablished nine years ago.
Grabis one of the most frequently used O2O mobile platforms in 195 cities inSoutheast Asia. More than 5 million people use the combined platform daily.-VNA
VNA
