‘GCash final offer price to decide IPO success’

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July 6, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The success of GCash’s stock market listing — set to become the country’s largest — could hinge on two things: whether investors would bet on its P10-per-share offer, and how firm its fundamentals are in challenging conditions, analysts said.

Unicapital Securities Inc. equity research analyst Peter Garnace said investors would likely scrutinize how GCash’s parent Mynt Inc. sets the final price for its initial public offering (IPO).

At an offer price of P10 a piece with 66.9 billion shares, Mynt’s valuation would be about P670 billion — roughly $11 billion — above the initially reported equity of $8 billion.

Garnace said at this rate, Mynt would be valued with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 30 times, higher than the P/E ratio of closest listed peer Nubank, whose parent Nu Holdings Inc. is trading at the New York Stock Exchange.

Nu is trading at around 20 times P/E ratio. Nubank, headquartered in Sau Paolo, Brazil, is Latin America’s largest digital bank, catering to roughly 135 million customers in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, of which 83 percent are actively banking.

“Investors are likely to closely scrutinize whether Mynt’s earnings growth, market leadership and long-term monetization opportunities justify this valuation premium,” Garnace told The STAR.

Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said Mynt appears to be pricing itself nearer Southeast Asia’s most successful unicorns Grab and Sea Ltd. based on P/E ratio.

Both Grab and Shopee owner Sea Ltd. are trading P/E ratios between 35 and 40 times, thus Mynt would presumably tell investors to price it alongside these tech giants.

“The asset appears to be priced more in line with regional peers such as Grab and Sea Ltd. based on P/E and other valuation multiples. It remains uncertain whether the local market is willing to assign such premiums, especially since even the country’s top three banks are trading single-digit P/E multiples,” Limlingan told The STAR.

Another listing factor is how Mynt would sell its growth story, especially as it plans to issue 1.61 billion in new shares. Garnace said the fresh shares could easily raise as much as P16 billion, thus Mynt must disclose how it intends to spend the proceeds.

GCash is already sitting in a comfortable position, booking P17.2 billion in profit and P79.8 billion in revenue last year, thanks to an active user base of 39.1 million monthly.

So the question is, Garnace said, where else does the e-wallet look to grow, as this would likely receive the proceeds from the fresh shares.

“We also expect investors to closely scrutinize the intended use of proceeds, given the company’s profitability and growth prospects,” Garnace said.

Limlingan said the expansion story would also allay fears that Mynt would be swallowed by the current weakness of the domestic market. Mynt is listing at a time when the economy grew by just 2.8 percent in the first quarter, and inflation hit a three-year high of 7.2 percent in April.

“I think the main risks here are timing and pricing. Given that both the economy and the market remain cloudy, this could cap the potential upside of GCash,” Limlingan said.

Still, Limlingan believes Mynt can pull off what could become the largest PSE listing given that it introduces financial technology to the local stock exchange.

Mynt targets to make history as the largest IPO in the PSE by selling 8.03 billion common shares with an overallotment option of 1.2 billion secondary shares, at P10 a piece.

Mynt hopes to raise P92.3 billion, with up to 13.8 percent of the company offered to the public in an IPO scheduled in the fourth quarter.