SINGAPORE - The local competition regulator is assessing the Singapore part of a proposed bid by SeekAsia Investments to buy the Malaysian company JobStreet.
The Kuala Lumpur-based firm runs the online recruitment portal JobStreet Singapore here.
The first phase of the review, which follows the close of a public feedback exercise on Wednesday, is expected to be completed within a month or so.
A second stage involves examining the effects of the acquisition and could take up to 24 weeks to complete, said a spokesman for the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) on Wednesday.
The Commission will then decide on whether to approve the deal, which involves SeekAsia acquiring 100 per cent of JobStreet for RM1.73 billion (S$667.5 million).
Australia-based Seek already owns 22 per cent of the firm.
Both companies notified the CCS about the proposed merger - the first here involving online recruitment firms - on Feb 20 as it could have implications for competition in the market.
Seek, the world's largest online employment marketplace by revenue, plans to combine JobStreet with JobsDB, its other majority-owned Asian online employment business, which spans Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Seek expects the JobStreet acquisition will enable it to expand into high-growth Asian markets.
JobStreet posts more than 150,000 adverts a month and has a database of more than 11 million job seekers in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The CCS said the parties contend that the proposed acquisition will "not result in a substantial lessening of competition in the market for online recruitment advertising services and recruitment solutions".
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