MANILA, OCT 20 – Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corp recently said it is investing US$320 million in Philippine fintech unicorn Mynt, buying Manila-based conglomerate Ayala’s half stake in the financial services company.
Japan’s biggest trading company will buy a 50 percent stake in Ayala’s AC Ventures Corp, which has a 13 percent stake in Mynt, the Philippine company said in a separate statement.
Fintech Unicorn was valued at around US$5 billion last August and owns GCash, the largest mobile wallet service in the Philippines.
Mitsubishi said it expects the Philippines to have the highest population and economic growth among the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“Although there are few people in the Philippines who have bank accounts, most of them have mobile phones and access to the Internet, which makes the Philippines an attractive market with great room for growth in digital financial services,” he said in a statement. – AFP
