PROFITABILITY and popularity issues mean that digital bank and e-wallet platform Maya won't be going public anytime soon, PLDT Inc. Chairman and President Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP) said.
"They're not in a position to IPO (initial public offering) in the near future, period," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"I mean, they have to demonstrate that they can be profitable starting 2025 and to be consistently profitable for at least another year," he added.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us. So to dream of an IPO in the next two years is simply an illusion. Please, don't talk about it. It won't happen. Plus the fact the market here is not conducive to an IPO."
PLDT-backed Maya, Pangilinan also said, was lesser known than rival GCash, which is owned by rival Globe Telecom Inc. and has been reported to be considering an IPO next year.
"What is the vocabulary, the vernacular for digital wallet? It's not Maya, right? It's GCash," he said.
"Everybody knows that. It's not a big deal."
Pangilinan, however, said that Maya had an advantage in that it was a digital bank unlike GCash, which remains a mobile payments service.
"The digital bank is something, it's a strength for Maya, because Globe doesn't have a digital bank. So that's an advantage. But it is not growing as fast as it should be growing," he said.
Earlier this year, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Eli Remolona Jr. said that digital banks in the country had yet to turn a profit.
"[M]aybe one or two are doing well in terms of being able to make reasonable loans. I don't think anyone is making money yet," he said.
BSP Director Melchor Pablasan said that only two of the six digital banks in the country were profitable and that the expectation was that it would take "around five to seven years" before money would start being made.
He did not identify the profitable banks. To date, the BSP's Monetary Board has granted digital banking licenses to Maya, UNO Digital Bank, GoTyme, Overseas Filipino Bank, Tonik Digital Bank and UnionDigital Bank.
A three-year halt ordered by the BSP in 2021 on new licenses will expire this year.
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