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GCash seen to surpass Globe’s valuation

Article (news)

Jekki Pascual

ABS-CBN News

<p>MANILA - GCash, the largest fintech in the Philippines, is possibly seen to surpass its parent firm Globe in terms of company valuation in the near future. GCash is now valued at $5 billion, while Globe is around $6 billion.</p><p>At the 20th anniversary gala night of GCash, Globe President and Chief Executive Officer Ernest Cu said the growth of GCash has been very significant since it started in 2004. The number of GCash users now is reported to have reached 94 million or 8 out of 10 Filipinos.</p><p>“This little child of ours who occupied a small number of square meters in the Globe Tower, its valuation is now close to the mother company. And I think given the growth potential of where this is going to be, it would be very well one day that our fintech business be larger in market depth than our telco business,” said Cu at the GCash anniversary celebration.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZnGYgLfQ1NY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Martha Sazon, President and CEO of Mynt which owns GCash, said if growth trends continue, it is possible that they may become the same or bigger size of Globe in terms of value in the coming years.</p><p>“Maybe if we continue with our double digital growth, hopefully, mag-pareho,” Sazon said.</p><p>GCash started 20 years ago, but its expansion was expedited with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as Filipinos ramped up their use of e-wallets or digital payment platforms. Gcash now has 10.9 million GSave depositors, 6.6 million GInvest investors, and 5.4 million unique borrowers, with P155 billion worth of loans disbursed.</p><p>Cu said GCash has become part of the Filipinos’ conversation. </p><p>“‘GCash mo na lang yan’ or something like that is what people use it now. It has become Google-- ‘i-Google mo yan’, ‘Google it’. We will know we made it. And today I think we are there synonymous with mobile money and now part of the vernacular.”</p><p>Sazon added, “Akala ng lahat it&#x27;s an overnight success. There&#x27;s a lot of hard work done behind the scenes.”</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W6EJBvmrQKo?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Despite the high growth, Sazon also said that an initial public offering or IPO for GCash is still not on the table. “Ginogrow pa namin ang business. There are no definite plans for IPO yet.”</p><p>They will expand instead to more areas and add more features in the coming months and years. Cu announced that GCash now be used in millions of Alipay merchants in China, while Sazon said they will bring the company to remote areas in the Philippines.</p><p>“Having more Filipinos use GCash especially yung mga nasa rural areas, nasa provinsya. So that we can empower them more and we can help them with their finances, educate them, get them to using digital services,” Sazon said.</p><p>GCash valuation soared to $5 billion just this August following fresh investments from Ayala Corporation and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. GCash, under Mynt, is a joint venture of Ayala, Globe, and China’s Ant Group of Alibaba.</p><div><br/></div>

<p>GCash is now valued at $5 billion, while Globe is around $6 billion.</p>

GCash is now valued at $5 billion, while Globe is around $6 billion.