PCC sets compliance period for CLC’s commitments for Trans-Asia acquisition

THE Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is allotting a four-year period to monitor the compliance of Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp. (CLC) with its voluntary commitments for its acquisition of Trans-Asia Shipping Lines, Inc.
PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan told reporters on the sidelines of a media briefing on Friday they must now agree with CLC on a third party monitoring body that will screen its compliance to the voluntary commitments approved last week.
“The Trans-Asia, we just issued the decision on the commitments. The next stage now is to get the monitor, parang yung sa (like the one for) Grab, merong (there is an) independent monitor, third party monitor… That’s a regular assessment of the data that the monitor will be able to collect,” he said.
He noted the CLC-Trans-Asia deal requires a longer period for monitoring compared to Grab’s 12-month compliance period because of the difference in their nature of business, as CLC’s involves big ships.
Last week, CLC told the stock exchange its proposed acquisition of Trans-Asia has been cleared by the PCC because of its voluntary commitments, which cover the monitoring of passenger and cargo rates and explaining “extraordinary rate increases” in critical routes.
Other commitments involve the submission of semi-annual reports on passenger and cargo trips in critical routes and the maintenance of service quality in passenger and cargo services using a customer satisfaction index developed by third party monitor.
The PCC started in October the first phase of its review of the 2016 CLC-Trans-Asia deal after voiding it earlier for failing to issue a notification to the anti-trust body. — Denise A. Valdez