Insider Spotlight
The historic listing on Tuesday, Oct. 20, also brought over 140,000 GCash users into the offering through the app, giving the country’s biggest stock market debut an unusually broad retail following.
“This is the largest initial public offering in the history of the Philippine Stock Exchange. It is a record, and more importantly, it is a statement of confidence in Mynt, in the Philippine economy and in the strength of our capital market,” Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president and CEO Ramon Monzon said in his remarks before the opening bell.
The stock opened at the IPO price of P6.60 and traded modestly higher through its debut session, reaching an intraday high of P6.76 each before finishing flat at P6.60 each.
Foreign funds come calling
Monzon said the listing capped a deliberate three-year effort to bring Mynt Inc., the company behind GCash, to the exchange, working with GCash chair Ernest Cu, GCash CEO Martha Sazon, investment banker Lauro Baja III of UBS and Securities and Exchange Commission chair Francis Ed. Lim.
The offering attracted 19 foreign and six domestic cornerstone investors who subscribed to 59.8 percent of the shares, while other institutional investors accounted for another 21.9 percent.
“This shows that international investors remain interested in the Philippines and continue to see the long-term value of our market,” Monzon said.
But the retail response was just as notable, the bourse chief said, as 140,725 GCash subscribers investing about P1.1 billion through the app, many becoming shareholders of a listed company for the first time.
Mynt entered the exchange at P6.60 per share with a market capitalization of P441.5 billion, making it the seventh-largest domestic listed company based on the previous day’s closing prices.
“The exchange regards this offering as a significant catalyst for the Philippine equities market. By renewing the confidence of domestic and international investors, it demonstrates the value that a listing on the exchange offers to companies of any size, from emerging SMEs to established conglomerates,” Monzon said.
Scenes from the IPO
Marcos sees opportunity beyond GCash
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who attended the bell-ringing ceremony, said the listing showed how technology could open investment opportunities to more Filipinos while encouraging companies to tap the stock market for capital.
“Through the Capital Markets Efficiency Promotion Act, or CMEPA, we reduced the stock transaction tax from 0.6 percent to 0.1 percent, helping to lower trading costs and to improve the competitiveness of our market,” Marcos said.
“I hope that Mynt’s listing will also encourage other Filipino enterprises to pursue new methods for growth and explore the stock market,” he added.
A new chapter for GCash
For Sazon, the IPO marked another milestone for a company that began as a text-based money transfer service in 2004 and now serves millions of Filipinos.
“Becoming a public company is not the finish line. The opportunity ahead is about how much more we can make possible for every Filipino,” Sazon said during her remarks.
She said nearly 90 percent of GCash customers come from low- to middle-income households, many of whom have traditionally lacked access to formal financial services.
“Today we ring this bell to open our new chapter as a listed company. And we ring it for a future where more Filipinos are seen, included, and empowered,” Sazon said.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
