Big IPO, big bonus: GCash employees get their own payday

Sam Calleja/Rappler

From first-time investors to the country's business elite and the President himself, everyone turned out for GCash. Now, can its record-breaking IPO wake up the sleepy PSE?

When no less than the President shows up to ring the bell at your stock market debut, you know it’s a big deal. For GCash employees who have been through the wringer to get the IPO done, there was an even sweeter reason to celebrate.

Sources told Rappler that employees of GCash parent Mynt are getting a prorated P100,000 bonus delivered straight to, you guessed it, their GCash wallets. And it wasn’t just the top brass getting a little something extra, with sources confirming that the payout reached employees across ranks.

Not everyone in Mynt’s nearly 2,600-strong workforce – which helped turn a once-obscure SMS payment service into the homegrown giant it is today – could cram onto the trading floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Tower. But word has it they held a watch party at their office a few blocks away in BGC, with plenty to cheer about.

Talk about an IPO payday!

On Tuesday, October 20, Mynt pulled off the biggest IPO in Philippine history, raising P60.9 billion and knocking Lucky Me! maker Monde Nissin’s offering in 2021 off the top spot.

And what a crowd it drew.

Among the familiar faces were the Zobel brothers Jaime Augusto and Fernando, Monetary Board member Romeo Bernardo, BPI chief TG Limcaoco, and former transportation secretary turned San Miguel director Jaime Bautista.

The stock market elite was there, too, including PSE chairman Jose Pardo, president Ramon Monzon, and the “dragon lady” Vivian Yuchengco, alongside government bigwigs Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Francis Lim and Finance Secretary Frederick Go. 

And, of course, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself, who hoped the record IPO might finally stir the sleepy beast that is the Philippine stock market.

“We recognize that investors have become more cautious and that attracting fresh capital remains a challenge,” he said. “But Mynt’s initial public offering gives us reason for optimism. The strong interest it has attracted from local and international investors is proof of the continued confidence in Filipino enterprise.”

Even on the day of its biggest IPO, the benchmark PSE index ended at around the 5,800 level, practically where it stood at the end of 2012. (READ: PSE enters new territory with GCash’s IPO. But to thrive, it must go further.)

It’s been a rough stretch for the local bourse. Had you put P100 into a fund tracking the Philippine index back then, you’d still have roughly P100 nearly 14 years later, excluding dividends and fees. The same P100 invested in a fund tracking Wall Street’s S&P 500 would now be worth around P830, thanks to US market gains and the weakening peso.

An eightfold gap. That’s how far Philippine stocks have fallen behind.

No wonder GCash’s dealmakers had to work hard to drum up interest. At a post-listing briefing, Mynt investor relations head Jep Tang said the company spent three months courting investors, meeting 137 after filing its registration statement, followed by 213 investor follow-ups and another 110 in the final round.

Any dividends for investors?

On its first day, GCASH climbed as high as P6.76 in the early trading hours before ending its first trading day at P6.60, back where it started. Not the spectacular first-day rally some might have hoped for, but it avoided the dreaded listing day slump, never falling below its offer price.

For now, anyone hoping to collect dividends might have to wait.

“We don’t have instituted a dividend policy yet,” Tang said, pointing instead to the many opportunities where the company intends to put its money to work. (READ: After the IPO party, GCash comes for 5-6 lending next)

Speaking of waiting, what about GCash’s rival Maya?

Maya chairman Manny Pangilinan had earlier floated a 2026 IPO, but the timetable has since slipped to 2027. When Maya cheekily congratulated GCash with a “Congrats, GCash. Welcome to Maya” post featuring the newly listed stock, even the PSE couldn’t resist joining in.