Mynt Inc., the parent of fintech giant GCash, on Thursday said it has drawn commitments from several cornerstone investors both here and abroad, as the company broadens its shareholder base.
Mynt said the aggregate commitments from over 20 cornerstone investors would cover the entire institutional offer tranche of the IPO, subject to any reallocation between tranches of the offer.
The group also marks notable new and returning institutional participation in the Philippine capital markets, including Albizia Capital Pte. Ltd., Amundsen Investment Management and HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Ltd. making their first cornerstone investment commitment in the Philippines, and Ninety One North America Inc. and Ninety One UK Ltd. participating as cornerstone investors in Southeast Asia for the first time.
‘We believe this reflects confidence in our position as the nation’s number one finance super app, our track record of profitable growth, and the significant market opportunity that lies ahead of us,’ Martha Sazon, president and CEO of Mynt.
‘Building a high-quality, diversified and long-term shareholder base is important to us, not just for the IPO, but for Mynt’s next chapter as a public company. The breadth and quality of cornerstone investor participation from both global and domestic institutions speaks to the strength of Mynt today and the opportunity ahead,’ Evelyn Ng, the company’s CFO, said.
Other global cornerstone investors include BlackRock Inc., Capital Research and Management Co., FIL Investment Management (Hong Kong) Ltd., International Finance Corp., Lazard Asset Management LLC, NS Partners Ltd., RWC Asset (US) LLC, RWC Asset Management LLP, Schroder Investment Management Ltd., Schroder Investment Management (Singapore) Ltd. and Schroder Investment Management (Hong Kong) Ltd., Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), T. Rowe Price International Ltd. and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.
Domestic cornerstone investors include ATRAM Trust Corp., BPI Asset Management and Trust Corp., China Bank Capital Corp., Metrobank Bank and Trust Co.-Trust Banking Group, Philequity Management Inc. and RCBC Capital Corp.
Eric Jurado, hedge fund manager for the SeA (Southeast Asia) Focus Portfolio, said one of the ‘most attractive aspects’ of Mynt GCash is that it has already built something that would be difficult and expensive to replicate from scratch.
As of June, GCash has about 41.5 million monthly active users, or more than a third of the country’s population and half of the country’s adults.
He said a competitor would not simply have to create another mobile wallet-it would have to build a comparable customer base, merchant network, financial infrastructure, brand, regulatory capabilities and ecosystem of financial products.
Jurado said GCash is no longer just a digital remittance tool, expanding into the ‘land-and-expand’ strategy, capturing consumers through simple, high-frequency services like peer-to-peer transfers, then seamlessly introducing them to higher-margin financial products.
‘Go deep by increasing engagement and the number of financial services each customer uses. Go wide by bringing more Filipinos, including those overseas, consumers, merchants, and businesses into the ecosystem,’ he said.
‘That means execution matters. Competition matters. Credit quality matters. Regulation matters. And, perhaps most importantly, earnings growth matters… It is about whether one of the Philippines’ most successful digital platforms can continue turning its enormous user base into a long-term earnings-compounding machine.’