2021 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Re-evaluating Minority Shareholding in Competition Law Against the Background of Horizontal Shareholding by Investors: Lessons Drawn From Fintech and E-Commerce Startups in Asia
| Project/Area Number |
21H00666
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
VAN・UYTSEL S 九州大学, 法学研究院, 教授 (30432842)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
植村 吉輝 阪南大学, 経済学部, 教授 (90388603)
M・D FENWICK 九州大学, 法学研究院, 教授 (90315036)
平山 賢太郎 筑波大学, ビジネスサイエンス系, 准教授 (20376396)
McGinty Sean 名古屋大学, 法学研究科, 准教授 (40706818)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2026-03-31
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| Keywords | common ownership / horizontal shareholding / new theory of harm / institutional investor / venture capital / startups / unicorns / GoJek and Grab |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The debate on horizontal shareholding or common ownership is nascent. Having started in 2012, the debate really took of with a study on the airline industry. This research claims that horizontal shareholding may lead to higher prices (even though this is still contested). This research has been framed within a specific context: 1) publicly owned stock corporations; 2) relatively low share of stockholding; 3) by institutional investors; 4) combined shareholding still minority shareholding.
Despite the early research holding a narrow concept of horizontal shareholding of common ownership, the concept is not as unequivocal. Our research has revealed that most of the literature sticks to the just described narrow concept. Some literature uses the concept without referring to institutional investors or to publicly owned stock corporations. Other literature neglects the minority shareholding aspect.
The variety of understanding of the concept of horizontal shareholding or common ownership makes it difficult to make one general statement on whether this concept links to anticompetitive conduct.
This finding that there is a broader concept of horizontal shareholding or common ownership is important for Asia. In Asia, the context may differ than in the original research. Horizontal shareholding or common ownership is frequent in relation to startups and venture capital firms.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Originally the research started slowly due to the Covid-19 situation. However, we were able to conduct a series of lectures with scholars famous in the area horizontal shareholding or common ownership. This discussion made it possible to investigate the differences between the different concept of horizontal shareholding or common ownership. Furthermore, it was possible to distinguish between the claim on whether traditional competition law concepts should apply to anticompetitive results of horizontal shareholding or common ownership or whether a new theory of harm should be conceptualized. Drawing this research towards Asia was initially difficult due to covid-19 making travel to Asian countries difficult. Instead, we asked corresponding researchers in Asia to inform us of the situation regarding horizontal shareholding or common ownership in their respective country.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Horizontal shareholding or common ownership has been seldom empirical in the sense that it has not much been documented to what extent there is an interference of institutional investors into their investee firms. Of course, the airline research does not require this kind of research as it is presumed that the presence of the common owner triggers the anticompetitive effect. As venture capital firms are more active than institutional investors, the next research will focus on gathering information on the active interference.
The research will first gather popular accounts of this active interference. The reason for this choice is the information that has become available that Softbank has urged a merger between Grab and GoJek. The fact that Softbank is an investor in Grab and Uber, requires us to see to what extent Softbank has been urging for the merger between Grab and Uber. Furthermore, Softbank is also an investor in Ola and Uber. Therefore, it is necessary to seek information on how Softbank is behaving towards these two investee firms.
The empirical research of the popular accounts (newspaper articles) will cover India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore.
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Research Products
(13 results)
