MANILA, Philippines – The parent company of GCash, the Philippines’ most popular e-wallet, now has a valuation of $5 billion after securing fresh investments from Ayala Corporation (AC) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Japan’s largest banking group.
AC, through its wholly-owned subsidiary AC Ventures Holdings, acquired an additional 8% stake in Mynt. Ayala poured in P22.9 billion, pushing the conglomerate’s stake in Mynt to around 13%.
“Ayala’s proposed increased investment in Mynt is part of its initiative to reallocate capital to clear business winners. The increased stake in Mynt allows Ayala to benefit from GCash’s strong long-term growth potential. The GCash platform, already dominant in the Philippines, has significant upside from untapped market opportunities,” AC said in a disclosure on Friday, August 2.
The Ayala Group as a whole already holds a substantial stake in GCash through Globe. The telecom giant maintains a 36% ownership stake in the fintech unicorn that it helped create, according to Globe’s 2023 integrated report. Globe has Ayala Corporation as a principal stockholder, with Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala as its board chairman.
Meanwhile, Japan’s MUFG, through its consolidated subsidiary MUFG Bank, is also set to acquire an 8% stake after it entered a binding agreement to invest in Mynt.
“GCash is an indispensable infrastructure for everyday life of Filipinos and we are delighted to join Mynt as a strategic investor to support the growth of the company. With our investment, we are excited to expand our contribution to the ongoing development of the Philippines’ digital economy and financial inclusion,” said Yasushi Itagaki, senior managing corporate executive and head of global commercial banking business group at MUFG.
With the new investments, GCash has more than doubled its value since the “double unicorn” status that it attained in its last funding round in 2021. It is now also the first and only $5 billion unicorn in the Philippines. As of 2023, Mynt notched a net income of P6.7 billion.
The proposed investment is just short of a done deal, as it is still “subject to the execution of definitive transaction documents and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions,” according to a Friday disclosure by Globe. International bank Morgan Stanley served as the financial advisor to Mynt. – Rappler.com
