MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has no plans to review Grab’s buyout of Move It, as it pushes for more players in the motorcycle taxi segment dominated by one player.
In an interview with reporters, Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said the DOTr would allow Grab Philippines to complete its acquisition of Move It, one of the three players in the motorcycle taxi business.
“We won’t (review that merger) because that is a private transaction,” Bautista said, when asked about the DOTr’s next move on Grab’s purchase of Move It.
Bautista said the government wants to raise the number of motorcycle taxi players to improve competition given that market leader Angkas is controlling the field. The technical working group (TWG) monitoring the segment imposes a cap of 15,000 riders for all participants.
However, Bautista said Angkas maintains a rider fleet of more than 17,000.
“At present, each of them — Angkas, JoyRide PH and Move It — should just have 15,000 riders, but Angkas now has a rider fleet of over 17,000,” he said.
Moving forward, Bautista requested Congress to pass a law regulating the operations of motorcycle taxi service providers to standardize the industry rules.
“We hope that there will be a law approved on that because we don’t give out franchises yet, we just allow them to operate (through the TWG). Hopefully, Congress can enact a bill on how we can give franchises to motorcycle taxis. Right now, all of the discussions center on safety,” Bautista said.
In August, Grab Philippines bought out Move It in a transaction that seeks to increase the rider fleet of the acquired party. Despite the acquisition, Grab said Move It would operate separately from the ride-hailing giant, as integrating them would require regulatory approval.
Grab also said it no longer submitted the transaction to the Philippine Competition Commission for review, assuring that the merger amounts to below P1 billion. However, no exact amount was disclosed to the public during the announcement of the buyout.
In the first month of the merger, Move It managed to double its rider fleet to 2,000 and plans to reach 6,000 by yearend to challenge the dominance of Angkas and JoyRide PH.