Philippine based Ayala Corp to Sell Mynt Stake to Mitsubishi for $318M

Ayala Corp, a major company in the Philippines, announced that it will sell 50% of its shares in Mynt, the fintech unicorn behind GCash, to Mitsubishi Corp of Japan for at least 18.4 billion pesos ($318.89 million).

The Philippine group announced in a statement that the Japanese conglomerate will purchase 50% of AC Ventures, owned by Ayala, to acquire the stake. Ayala holds a 13 percent share in Mynt through AC Ventures.

Mynt, a collaboration between Ant Group, Ayala, and Globe Telecom, consists of two financial technology companies: G-Xchange, the company behind GCash, and Fuse Lending, a technology-driven micro-lending firm. It was worth $5 billion during a funding round in August that involved Mitsubishi UFJ Financial.

"We believe Mitsubishi can add meaningful value to Mynt, which will allow Mynt to deliver significant value to its over 94 million registered users," Ayala President and CEO Cezar Consing said.

Recently, Martha Sazon, President and CEO of Mynt, stated that there are no concrete plans for an initial public offering, with the main priority being the business expansion, specifically of GCash. During the pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the use of digital services in the Philippines, making it one of the rapidly growing fintech markets in Southeast Asia.