No IPOs for other Ayala units, for now – Consing

After GCash

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala Corp. the country’s oldest conglomerate, has no immediate plans to bring other business units public after the listing of GCash parent Mynt Inc.

Ayala president and CEO Cezar Consing said doing an initial public offering (IPO) is not necessarily the Holy Grail in these kinds of trading environments, unlike in the old days when the markets were skyrocketing.

“You know, the valuations the public markets are now giving, it’s almost better to remain private, right?” Consing told The STAR in a recent interview.

“Because if private investors – if the likes of ABC Impact, A.P. Moller, etc. – are prepared to give you good value, why even bother with an IPO?” he said.

Singapore’s ABC Impact marked its entry into the Philippine health care sector with a strategic investment in AC Health last year, while global institutional fund manager A.P. Moller Capital completed its investment in AC Logistics last July.

Health care arm AC Health and integrated logistics platform AC Logistics are part of Ayala’s emerging businesses, which also include ACMobility and listed Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc.

“In our case, going public is not the be-all and end-all, right? I mean, there are companies that we really prefer to keep private. Not everything has to be public,” Ayala chief social infrastructure officer Paolo Borromeo said.

The group has several listed companies in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), including parent Ayala Corp., Globe Telecom Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands,  Ayala Land Inc. and ACEN.

Mynt is also making its stock market debut this month, with plans to raise as much as P60.93 billion from its IPO.

Ayala has shareholdings in Mynt directly and indirectly through AM 50 Ventures Inc. and Globe Telecom, respectively.

Meanwhile, Consing said there is “nothing planned” in terms of delisting any of the group’s listed companies from the PSE.

“It makes sense for some people, right? If the public markets are not prepared to give you proper valuation,” Consing said.