GCash preparing for IPO in the last half of 2024

Oscar Reyes Jr., the CEO of GCash operator G-Xchange [link], said that they’re “preparing internally so that we can be ready this year” for an IPO, but clarified that “it is a question of the market, not of GCash, as the market has yet to rebound fully.” While he wasn’t enthusiastic about the market right now, Mr. Reyes said, “Hopefully, the market will be ready by the second half.” GCash is owned by Mynt, which is a joint venture between Globe [GLO 1790.00, up 4.6%; 608% avgVol], Ant Financial, and a collection of smaller investments from funds like Warburg Pincus and Insight Partners. Mynt’s last round of fundraising in November 2021 valued the company at US $2 billion. 

MB bottom-line: GCash has cried wolf before about conducting a potential IPO (in June they expected to be “push-button ready” for an IPO by the end of 2023). When GCash says that they’re waiting for the market to recover, they aren’t explicitly talking about the PSEi’s level, but about the thing that the PSEi’s level roughly represents: valuations. GLO and its partners in Mynt don’t want to part with any shares of this Golden Goose unless they have to (like a cash crunch or a capex-heavy expansion plan) or the market demonstrates that it is willing to give a good valuation for Mynt’s business. Things are improving, but most potential sellers are waiting for some momentum from rate cuts (or the perception of rate cuts) to juice the market and re-inflate valuations before they pull the trigger on a sale transaction (like an IPO). While they wait, they’ll do whatever they can to pump up GCash’s valuation metrics, which is why we get all this talk about GCash’s Q1 “global expansion” to the Middle East – which just so happens to be host to millions of OFWs. I’ve been a proponent of a Mynt/GCash spinoff for a long time, and while I don’t blame anyone for wanting to wait for the right time to make the sale, I am disappointed that I couldn’t have invested in this thing earlier and gambled on the 2022/23 growth rather than have to buy that growth at market rates in late 2024. 

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