MANILA, Philippines — From sending money through text messages more than two decades ago, GCash is now preparing to enter the Philippine stock market with an estimated ₱442-billion valuation, putting its parent Mynt Inc. alongside some of the country’s biggest financial institutions.
Mynt has officially priced its highly anticipated initial public offering at ₱6.60 per share, setting up a stock-market debut that could raise as much as ₱60.9 billion if an overallotment option is fully exercised. The shares are scheduled to begin trading on the Philippine Stock Exchange on October 20, 2026, under the ticker symbol GCASH.
At the final IPO price, Mynt is valued at roughly ₱442 billion, according to InsiderPH.
Based on market capitalizations cited by the publication on October 2, that would place the GCash operator behind only BDO Unibank and Bank of the Philippine Islands among major Philippine financial companies, and ahead of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. at prevailing market prices.
Those rankings can change as listed share prices move, but the comparison shows just how dramatically GCash has grown from its beginnings as a mobile-money service.
FROM TEXT-MESSAGE MONEY TRANSFERS TO A ₱442-BILLION FINTECH
GCash traces its roots to 2004, when Globe Telecom introduced a service that allowed users to transfer money using SMS.
Its transformation accelerated after Ant Financial, now known as Ant Group, invested in Mynt in 2017 and brought experience developed through China’s Alipay ecosystem.
The pandemic later accelerated adoption of mobile payments as millions of Filipinos turned to digital transfers, online shopping and cashless transactions.
Today, GCash has evolved far beyond an electronic wallet.
As of June 30, the platform had around 41.5 million monthly active users, according to figures cited in Mynt’s IPO materials.
Its financial ecosystem now spans lending, savings, investments, insurance, merchant payments and stock-market access.
GCash reported:
7.5 million active borrowers
17.9 million savings accounts
9.2 million managed investment-fund accounts
2 million local stock-market accounts through partner AB Capital Securities
The numbers highlight Mynt’s strategy of converting its massive payments user base into customers of higher-value financial products.
IPO COULD REACH ₱60.9 BILLION
The final offering involves approximately 8.03 billion common shares priced at ₱6.60 each.
Of those:
1.61 billion are primary shares, meaning newly issued shares whose proceeds will go to Mynt.
About 6.42 billion are secondary shares, meaning existing shareholders are selling part of their holdings.
Together, the firm offer is worth approximately ₱53 billion.
Mynt also has an overallotment option covering another 1.204 billion secondary shares.
If that option is fully exercised, total shares sold could rise to roughly 9.23 billion, pushing the transaction to approximately ₱60.9 billion.
Reuters reported that the ₱53-billion firm offer would rank as the second-largest IPO in Philippine history.
But with the overallotment fully exercised, the transaction could surpass previous Philippine IPO records.
WHY THE ₱6.60 PRICE MATTERS
The final IPO price is substantially below the ₱10 maximum price initially contemplated for the offering.
At ₱10 a share, Mynt’s IPO could originally have raised as much as ₱92.3 billion, including the overallotment option.
The eventual ₱6.60 price reduced the implied valuation but also helped attract significant institutional demand.
Mynt said the IPO was oversubscribed multiple times, reflecting demand from both foreign and domestic institutions.
GLOBAL INVESTORS COMMIT ₱36.5 BILLION
One of the strongest signals ahead of the listing is the participation of large institutional investors.
Cornerstone investors have committed approximately ₱36.5 billion, representing nearly 69% of the firm offer before the overallotment option.
Participants identified in current reports include major global and local institutions such as:
BlackRock-linked funds
Capital Research and Management
Fidelity-linked funds
Schroders
Citadel
HSBC Global Asset Management
International Finance Corporation
as well as Philippine institutions including ATRAM, BPI Asset Management and China Bank Capital.
The participation of heavyweight investment firms gives Mynt a substantial institutional shareholder base even before retail investors begin placing orders.
MOST IPO PROCEEDS ARE FROM EXISTING SHAREHOLDERS
There is another side to the headline IPO number.
Most shares being sold are secondary shares, meaning much of the money raised will go to existing shareholders selling part of their stakes rather than directly into Mynt.
The primary portion is expected to generate approximately ₱10.6 billion in gross proceeds for the company.
After fees and expenses, Mynt expects to receive around ₱9.42 billion.
According to the prospectus figures cited by InsiderPH, around 60% of those net proceeds, or approximately ₱5.65 billion, will be used to expand Mynt’s CreditTech lending business.
The remainder will support product development and general corporate requirements.
That distinction matters because the headline IPO size is significantly larger than the amount of fresh capital flowing directly into GCash’s parent company.
PROFIT CONTINUES TO GROW — BUT MORE SLOWLY
Mynt is going public from a position of strong profitability.
The company generated ₱43.15 billion in revenue during the first half of 2026, up about 10% from ₱39.18 billion in the same period a year earlier.
First-half net income reached approximately ₱10.82 billion.
Reuters said Mynt’s first-half net income grew 7.3%, while revenues climbed 10.4% year on year.
However, those figures also suggest GCash is entering a more mature phase where maintaining the rapid growth of earlier years may become harder.
InsiderPH reported that Mynt ended June with approximately ₱68.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents, while interest income from deposits jumped 45% to ₱2.56 billion during the first half.
That interest income has helped support profits as operating growth moderates.
GCash HAS BECOME BIGGER THAN SOME OF ITS OWN CORPORATE PARENTS
Perhaps the most striking symbol of GCash’s rise is its implied market value compared with the companies that helped build it.
At around ₱442 billion, Mynt’s IPO valuation exceeds the market capitalization figures cited by InsiderPH for both Globe Telecom and Ayala Corp. at the time of the report.
That represents a remarkable reversal.
GCash began as a supplementary mobile-money product within Globe.
Two decades later, the financial technology company it helped create is preparing to become one of the country’s biggest listed financial businesses by market capitalization.
Former Globe president and GCash Chairman Ernest Cu had previously suggested such a reversal was possible, saying during GCash’s 20th anniversary celebration in 2024 that the fintech business could eventually become larger in market value than the telecommunications business that created it.
THE IPO ARRIVES AT A CRITICAL TIME FOR THE PHILIPPINE STOCK MARKET
Mynt’s listing could also have implications far beyond GCash.
Reuters reported that Philippine equity fundraising had fallen sharply in 2026 before the offering, with only around $227 million raised through equity transactions earlier in the year.
A successful multibillion-peso fintech IPO could therefore help revive investor interest in the Philippine Stock Exchange and potentially encourage more technology and digital-economy companies to pursue local listings.
It will also test whether Philippine retail investors are willing to assign technology-style valuations to a financial platform rather than value it using the same measures traditionally applied to banks.
THE VALUATION PUTS PRESSURE ON GCASH TO KEEP GROWING
A ₱442-billion valuation brings prestige, but it also raises expectations.
InsiderPH estimated that the IPO price values Mynt at roughly 20.8 times Morgan Stanley’s projected 2026 earnings of ₱21.2 billion.
That means investors buying GCash shares are not simply betting on its current dominance in digital payments.
They are betting that Mynt can keep expanding lending, savings, investments, merchant services and other financial products across one of Southeast Asia’s largest consumer markets.
And those expectations come as growth rates are beginning to normalize.
Competition from banks, digital lenders and rival finance apps is intensifying, while regulatory requirements and credit risks will become increasingly important as GCash expands deeper into lending.
FROM TEXT MESSAGES TO THE STOCK EXCHANGE
GCash’s upcoming IPO marks one of the most dramatic transformations in Philippine corporate history.
What began as a way of sending money through a mobile phone has become a financial ecosystem touching payments, loans, savings, investments and stock trading for tens of millions of Filipinos.
At ₱6.60 per share, Mynt’s roughly ₱442-billion valuation places it in territory once dominated almost exclusively by century-old banks and conglomerates.
But the IPO is also the beginning of a different test.
Once GCASH begins trading on October 20, investors will decide every day whether the company can justify that valuation.
And after becoming one of the Philippines’ biggest financial companies on paper, GCash’s next challenge will be proving it can keep growing like a fintech giant even as it increasingly starts to resemble one of the financial institutions it set out to disrupt.
