By Yantoultra Ngui
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – GCash, a Philippine fintech firm, has hired banks, including Citi, Jefferies and UBS, to work on an up to $1.5 billion domestic initial public offering, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, in what would be the country’s biggest ever stock offering.
The IPO is expected to take place as early as the second half of 2025 or in 2026, subject to broader market conditions, two of the sources said, declining to be named as the matter was private.
If the listing goes ahead it would be Philippines’ biggest ever, surpassing the $1 billion IPO of Philippine food company Monde Nissin in 2021.
In response to Reuters questions, GCash referred on Friday to a statement from its listed affiliate, Globe Telecom, to the Philippine bourse saying it has no material information to disclose at this time regarding the engagement of banks for GCash’s IPO.
“We would like to reiterate that the plan of GCash is to be push-button ready for an IPO when the opportune time comes, but no final decisions have been made at this point,” Globe Telecom said in the statement.
Bloomberg first reported on GCash appointing HSBC, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS for the IPO.
Citi, HSBC, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS declined to comment.
GCash’s IPO could boost the Southeast Asian IPO market, where total IPO proceeds fell 43% to $3.28 billion in 2024 from $5.76 billion in 2023, according to LSEG data.
IPO proceeds raised in the Philippines amounted to $234.1 million in 2024, a surge from $72.9 million a year ago, LSEG data showed.
GCash described itself as the Philippines’ “number one finance app and largest cashless ecosystem” on its website. Its app can be used for services like remitting money and making bill payments in the Philippines.
In August last year, its parent Globe Fintech Innovations Inc, also known as Mynt, announced that it has secured investments from Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group that gave it a valuation of $5 billion, a press statement at that time said.
That was more than double the $2 billion valuation from a previous funding round in 2021, the statement said.
(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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