The Philippine Stock Exchange has approved the initial public offering of Mynt, Inc., the company behind the GCash mobile wallet, in a listing the exchange expects to be the largest in its history. In its September 18 release (pse.com.ph), the PSE said Mynt will offer 8.03 billion primary and secondary common shares: up to 1.61 billion primary shares sold by the company, up to 6.42 billion secondary shares sold by a shareholder, and an overallotment option of up to 1.20 billion secondary shares. The shares carry a maximum price of 10 pesos each, the offer period runs October 6 to 12 and the tentative listing date on the PSE Main Board is October 20, under the symbol GCASH.
What is not fixed yet is the price. The same PSE release states that the final offer price will be determined on October 1, after book building, and that primary proceeds will fund digital financial services growth, product development and general corporate purposes. Context.ph (context.ph), which reported the Notice of Approval, adds that the offer remains subject to PSE conditions, to the Securities and Exchange Commission's final permit to sell and to market conditions.
The comparison that matters
On the headline numbers, the deal is a step above anything the Philippine market has absorbed. Context.ph puts total proceeds at 89.25 billion pesos if the overallotment is exercised in full, with an initial market capitalisation of 668.96 billion pesos, above the 200 billion peso threshold that triggers the PSE's enhanced listing standards. Dow Jones Newswires, in the report carried by Morningstar (morningstar.com), calculated the base offering at nearly 1.3 billion dollars, rising to about 1.48 billion dollars with the overallotment, and a valuation near 10.7 billion dollars based on roughly 66.9 billion shares outstanding after the offer. Startup Fortune (startupfortune.com), citing Rappler and IFR, cited a valuation of about 10.9 billion dollars. The spread between the two dollar figures reflects how each calculation treats the share count and the secondary tranche. The record to beat is Monde Nissin, whose 2021 IPO raised about 1.0 billion dollars, according to Dow Jones.
The structure also decides who gets the cash. Only the primary tranche, of up to 1.61 billion shares, raises money for Mynt itself: Context.ph cites estimated net primary proceeds of 14.95 billion pesos, a fraction of the headline size, because the bulk of the offer is secondary stock sold by a shareholder. Dow Jones reports that Globe Telecom holds a 34 percent stake in Mynt and that backers include Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and the private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Startup Fortune says the three owners it identifies as Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp and Ant Group stand to cash in on the reach of the wallet.
Why the market will read it closely
Scale is the argument behind the valuation. Dow Jones reports that GCash, founded in 2004, serves 94 million users and processed 17 trillion pesos in gross transaction value in 2025, equivalent to more than 270 billion dollars, for an average of 56.7 million transactions a day, with cross-border payments in more than 220 countries and territories through partner networks that include Ant Group's Alipay+.
The exchange is also treating the deal as a retail-market event. PSE president and chief executive Ramon S. Monzon said the subscription will be available through GStocks inside the GCash app: "I am optimistic that this debut will drive strong market activity ahead of Q4. Considering that the IPO subscription will also be made available through GStocks in the GCash app, we expect to see a significant uptick in new retail investors." Mynt is letting the public in with a 12 percent float instead of the usual 15 percent, a relief that Startup Fortune attributes to a PSE rule for issuers valued above 200 billion pesos. Local small investors can also subscribe through the exchange's PSE EASy platform, the PSE release adds.
Two cross-currents frame the timing. Dow Jones notes the offer lands in a market made volatile by the US-Iran conflict, while Startup Fortune contrasts Mynt's profitable consumer business with Holtec's cancelled US nuclear listing of 750 million to 900 million dollars on September 17 and with the recent Standard Nuclear and X-Energy deals, now trading 21 percent and 37 percent below their issue prices. For Ant Group, whose own 37 billion dollar IPO was shelved in 2020, a completed GCash listing would be a realised return on a Southeast Asian bet.
What approval does not settle
A PSE approval is neither a completed raise nor a final price. The 10 peso maximum and the 8.03 billion share count are caps; the terms depend on the book that closes on October 1, and the SEC permit to sell and market conditions still stand between approval and the October 20 debut. The dollar valuations convert peso figures at a single price ceiling and a share count that can still change, which is why the peso references — 668.96 billion pesos of implied market capitalisation and 14.95 billion pesos of estimated net primary proceeds — are the more stable anchors. Nothing published so far indicates the demand the book will actually attract, and a listing that prices at the ceiling would still leave most of the proceeds with selling shareholders rather than the company.
Sources
- Philippine Stock Exchange, "PSE clears Mynt, Inc. for IPO" (primary): pse.com.ph
- Context.ph, "Mynt secures PSE approval for to 89.25-billion GCash IPO": context.ph
- Dow Jones Newswires via Morningstar, "Ant International-Backed Fintech Unicorn Gets Regulatory Nod for Philippines's Largest-Ever IPO": morningstar.com
- Startup Fortune, "Mynt Clears Final Approval for GCash's 1.5 Billion Philippine IPO": startupfortune.com
