The GCash phenom

The price per share of the Philippines’ biggest e-wallet, GCash, was pegged at P6.60 on Oct. 1, 2026.

At P6.60 per share, Mynt Inc., the owner of GCash, is valued at P441.534 billion, with 66.9 million shares outstanding. Mynt is selling up to 9.23 billion shares worth P61 billion in the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever in the Philippines.

At a selling price of P6.60 per share and a P441 billion market cap, GCash is selling at about 8.38 times its earnings.

At the initial target offering price of P10 per share, GCash would have been valued at P669 billion, making Mynt one of the three most valuable companies in the Philippines. And GCash would have generated P92.3 billion from its IPO.

With a P441.5-billion market value, Mynt becomes the fifth largest company in market value, behind No. 4, affiliate bank, Bank of PI, with P500.5 billion, and ahead of now No. 6, mother company Ayala Corp. with P324 billion.

The three largest companies in market value are: 1) container port operator ICTSI of Enrique Razon, P1.75 trillion; 2) SM Investments Corp. of the Henry Sy family, P595.28 billion and 3) Sy’s banking behemoth, BDO Unibank Inc., P577.56 billion.

Want to know how to be a billionaire? Get and manage other people’s money (OPM). Get OPM as deposits. Parlay those deposits efficiently, usually seven times (called the gearing ratio). Make money each time OPM is turned over.

In Mynt’s case, GCash does it efficiently and at the lowest cost. It costs GCash only P79.19 to enrol a user. And it makes P1,375 in revenue per user, which is called average revenue per user (ARPU).

Unlike other banks, which have to build bank branches and install ATM machines, GCash calls itself asset-light. It has no physical assets to maintain in thousands of locations. BDO, for instance, maintains 1,994 domestic branches across the archipelago of 7,600 islands. All GCash needs is a cellular phone and a cellular signal.

Globe has 63 million subscribers. They become captive to GCash as users. Because anytime a Globe subscriber needs cash, from P20 to P50,000, GCash is there. GCash knows if you are a bad borrower. It maintains what it calls a GScore, an AI-run credit scoring system.

Not surprisingly, GCash has an awesome ecosystem: 94 million registered users, 80.3 percent of the total population; P17 trillion in transaction value; 1.3 million touchpoints where GCash users can be assisted; 2.4 million QR Phl merchants; over 3,000 partners and presence in over 200 countries and territories.

GCash is thus the country’s largest bank and possibly the most profitable bank. Transactions handled as of end-2025 amounted to P17 trillion, 57 percent of the value of Philippine Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of P30 billion.

In 2025, GCash delivered net income of P17.248 billion on revenues of P79.67 billion, a return on sales or income margin of 21 percent; P21 of every P100 of revenue is profit. Profit growth has averaged 64 percent per year; revenue has been rising at a frenetic clip of 54 percent per year.

GCash is an amazing platform. It is the portable, wireless, cashless wallet of both the rich and famous and of the hoi polloi.

Before GCash, banks and credit cards linked customer credit cards to ATM machines and physical bank branches.

Disdaining this approach, GCash enrolled the unbanked into full digital systems reached by anyone with a cellular phone and a cellular signal. Instantly, millions of Filipinos, denied banking access (that’s 70 percent of adults), were connected to the banking system. Instantly, distant and rural areas – and of course, the poor and common folks – became connected.

“I-GCash mo na yan!” became the daily mantra of up to 90 million Filipinos. GCash and the transactions it facilitated – worth up to P10 trillion today – became the life and lifestyle of many.

Of the P61 billion Mynt will generate from its IPO, about P53 billion comes from the primary sale and close to P8 billion from the over-allotment option. The amount represents 8.03 billion common shares in the primary offer and 1.2 billion common shares in the over-allotment lot.

PhilSTAR says the decision to price at P6.60 follows concerns raised by analysts that P10 may be too demanding, given the economic landscape. Investors are dealing with currency depreciation, rising inflation and slower growth.

Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said P10 would mean that Mynt is aligning itself with Southeast Asia’s most successful unicorns, Grab and Sea Ltd. However, he noted it might be challenging to land such premiums.

Despite the lower share price offering, Mynt is already secured with P36.5 billion in commitments from cornerstone investors BlackRock Inc., Capital Research and Management Co., International Finance Corp., among others.

GCash’s IPO is from Oct. 6 to 12. It will be listed on Oct. 20, 2026.

Mynt’s CEO is Martha M. Sazon. She is now one of Asia’s hottest CEOs. From zero in 2004, she helped power GCash to become the Philippines’ largest, simplest and most profitable digital or mobile payments system.

Martha became president and CEO of Mynt on June 26, 2020, amid the century’s worst pandemic and the worst economic decline. The crisis became an opportunity for enormous growth, and the pandemic became an epiphany for the wonders of cashless, contactless digital banking.

Over the last six years, GCash has achieved milestones after milestones that no bank, traditional, digital or hybrid, or mobile telephony, has achieved or surpassed.

Martha focused on the customer. GCash has advanced financial inclusion, expanding access to digital payments, savings, credit, insurance and investment opportunities.

Like Colgate, GCash became a verb for quick, cashless transactions in seconds.

Before GCash, Martha had 30 years of experience across the food, consumer pharmaceutical, personal care, telecommunications and fintech industries.

In 12 years at Globe Telecom, she led the Mobile Postpaid, SME and broadband businesses and drove numerous breakthroughs and achievements.

Martha is a UP Business Administration and Accountancy, cum laude.

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