Philippines’ GCash not rushing to launch IPO due to strong financial position: chairman

Ernest Cu, chairman of the Philippine mobile payments giant, says the initial public offering ‘should be ready very shortly’

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A woman using the GCash app in the Philippines. Photo: Handout

Published: 3:45pm, 8 Nov 2024Updated: 6:52pm, 8 Nov 2024

The proposed initial public offering by GCash would take place next year as planned given that market conditions for listings have improved but the Philippine mobile payments giant was in no hurry to do so due to its strong financial position, said its chairman Ernest Cu.

Speaking to This Week in Asia in an interview, Cu said inflation and interest rates have eased in the past year.

“The company [GCash] is getting itself ready for an IPO … It’s not that difficult for us to do that and get lined up to be a public company so we should be ready very shortly,” said Cu, who is also President and CEO of Philippine communications company Globe Telecom, which owns an indirect stake in GCash through Mynt.

When asked about GCash’s intention to pursue a dual IPO listing, the company told This Week in Asia that the Philippines would be one of the two markets for the offering but declined to mention the other. Several media reports have said that GCash was also aiming for a listing in the United States.

Cu said on the sidelines of the Singapore FinTech Festival that GCash was not rushing to launch an IPO as it had received funding from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and its subsidiary MUFG Bank in August.

“The company is profitable, doing very well,” he said on Wednesday. “There’s no pressure to do anything.”