Grab Rentals’ acquisition of Trans-cab still under review - CCCS

The acquisition has not been cleared of competition concerns.

The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) has completed the Phase 1 review of the proposed acquisition by Grab Holdings Limited (Grab), through its subsidiary Grab Rentals, of 100% of the shares of Trans-cab Holdings.

The commission, however, was unable to come up with a conclusion after the review.

CCCS conducted the review to ensure non-infringement of section 54 of the Competition Act 2004, which prohibits mergers that have resulted or may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market in Singapore.

According to CCCS, the parties overlap in the provision of private-hire car rentals for ride-hail services in Singapore and ride-hail platform services in Singapore.

Grab operates primarily over a mobile application across the digital financial services, delivery, and mobility sectors, which also include ride-hail platform services. 

Trans-cab is a licensed street-hail service operator in Singapore and also owns a fleet of private-hire cars for rental to drivers for the provision of ride-hail services. Trans-cab offers phone taxi booking services to passengers but only for the taxi fleet operated by Trans-cab.
Parties may offer commitments to address the potential competition concerns of the proposed acquisition raised by CCCS. Otherwise, CCCS will proceed to Phase 2 review upon CCCS’s receipt of the relevant documents from the parties.