Daily Briefing: GIC eyes sale of private equity portfolio for US$2b; Singapore's online sales measure is a win for Asia

And here's why Grab and Uber need to review their deal to avoid derailment.

From Deal Street Asia:

According to a PE Hub report, GIC is eyeing the sale of a large chunk of its private equity portfolio for US$2b.

"GIC, which was involved in two biggest transactions in the first quarter of this year, amounting to a combined $29.6b, has listed a portfolio of private equity interests on the secondary market recently, according to the report. Investment holding firm Cogent Investment Group is working as the adviser on the deal.

According to a GIC report released last year, private equity accounted for about 9% of the Singapore fund’s asset mix as of March 31, 2017. The fund’s private equity interests include buyouts, venture capital, mezzanine debt, distressed debt, and secondary fund investments."

Read more here.

From Bloomberg Finance:

Last week, Singapore's Department of Statistics (SingStat) published the proportion of the country's retail sales that were transacted online. Whilst 3.9% is not remarkable, Bloomberg said the tool will be useful for officials across Asia which are struggling to study the impact of digital sales in their economies.

"The Singapore Department of Statistics has started publishing the proportion of the city state’s retail sales that were transacted online. In February, those purchases made up 3.9 percent of overall retail sales, or $144.3m (US$110m), compared with 4.1% in the prior month, the agency reported Thursday.

That share appears unremarkable, and two months can’t qualify as robust data. But the gauge should prove to be a useful tool as officials across the region struggle to measure the impact of digital sales on their economies, and whether that should, in turn, prompt changes to tax policy.

Central banks and statistics agencies across Asia have been hiring armies of number-crunchers to explore how consumers’ shopping habits are affecting inflation."

Read more here.

From Tech in Asia:

According to Tech in Asia's interviews with experts, the fallout of the Grab-Uber (or "Gruber") deal is unlikely to happen, however, the regulators might ask the two companies involved to revise the deal if concerns over competition are proven.

"Experts tell Tech in Asia that the “Gruber” marriage is unlikely to be annulled. But regulatory agencies may compel the couple to rewrite their vows if they feel that Grab’s post-merger market share will have too much of a chilling effect on competition.

The fact that several watchdogs in the region are now examining the deal indicates they have reasonable grounds to suspect it may be in breach of anti-competition rules.

In Singapore, the CCCS will typically attempt to determine if a merger is violating Section 54 by considering if the combination surpasses certain market-share thresholds, Tan explains.

If the combined entity will have 40%-plus market share, or if post-merger, the combined entity and two of its largest rivals in the market will have a total share of 70% or more, regulatory alarm bells are likely to start ringing."

Read more here.