Philippines: PCC raises threshold for mergers

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has raised the threshold for mandatory notifications of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to ensure that transactions will not substantially lessen competition in the market.

In its statement on Thursday, the PCC said the threshold will increase from PHP 5 billion to PHP 5.6 billion for the Size of Person (SOP) and from PHP 2 billion to PHP 2.2 billion for the Size of Transaction (SOT) effective March 1.

SOP refers to the value of assets or revenues of the ultimate parent entity of at least one of the parties while SOT refers to the value of assets or revenues of the acquired entity.

“A well-designed threshold must be reflective of the country’s economic condition, such that the scope of merger control remains faithful to the intent of the law. The rationale for setting a notification threshold is to ensure that M&As that are more likely to substantially lessen competition are subject to compulsory notification and review, and to exclude those that are less likely to pose competition concerns,” according to PCC Chairman Arsenio Balisacan.