Sustained profitability of GCash IPO seen at lower starting price

Philstar.com

October 4, 2026 | 4:00pm

MANILA, Philippines — The initial public offering (IPO) of GCash’s parent company is providing investors with a more attractive starting point following the company’s final pricing at P6.60 per share, while its sustained profitability provides an important basis for assessing its longer-term value, according to an investment analyst.

Eric Jurado’s analysis applies the investment principles associated with the late Charlie Munger, the longtime investment partner of Warren Buffett and former vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, who emphasized the importance of business quality, profitability and long-term earning power in evaluating stocks.

For prospective GCash investors, the approach reportedly shifts attention from the IPO’s initial trading performance to whether Mynt can continue generating strong returns from the capital provided by its shareholders.

Mynt’s reported return on equity, or ROE, provides one measure of that profitability, with figures cited in the company’s prospectus showing ROE of 25.8% in 2023, 32.8% in 2024, 32.1% in 2025 and 26.8% for the 12 months to June 2026.

The figures translate to an average ROE of about 29.4% across the periods examined, indicating that Mynt has consistently generated substantial returns on shareholders’ capital.

ROE measures how effectively a company uses shareholders’ money to generate earnings, making it an important indicator for investors assessing whether a business is capable of producing attractive returns over time.

The consistency of Mynt’s ROE is particularly relevant because the company reportedly maintained returns above 25 percent in each of the periods cited, rather than relying on a single exceptionally strong year.

The lower P6.60 final IPO price also gives investors a different starting valuation from the previously disclosed maximum offer price of P10, although the lower price alone does not establish that the shares are undervalued.

Under the Munger investment framework, the price paid remains important, but the longer-term result will ultimately depend on the earning power of the business acquired at that price.

Mynt enters the market with a large established customer base, with GCash reporting 41.5 million monthly active users as of June 2026, giving the company an extensive platform for expanding its financial services.

The company has expanded GCash beyond payments into savings, credit, loans, insurance and investments, providing opportunities to increase revenues from its existing customer base while broadening its financial-services ecosystem.

For investors, however, continued user growth alone will not be enough to sustain the company’s value; Mynt will reportedly need to convert its customer reach into recurring revenues and profits while managing competition, credit, regulatory and other business risks.

The key issue for Mynt shareholders, therefore, moves beyond whether GCash will g listing and toward whether the company can maintain its profitability, grow earnings and reinvest capital effectively to increase the underlying value of the business.

At P6.60, investors are effectively buying into the future earnings of Mynt, making the sustainability of those earnings central to the value-for-money equation and to the potential for long-term shareholder gains. (Contributed story)