MANILA, Philippines — Digital wallet and bank Maya is on track to finally break even in the last quarter of 2024, but for Manny Pangilinan, that’s not nearly enough, especially with fierce rival GCash recently becoming the first and only $5 billion unicorn in the Philippines.
When asked about Maya’s next move after GCash secured fresh investments and a sky-high valuation, a buzz of hurried whispers swept through PLDT’s senior leadership during the earnings media briefing on Tuesday, August 13. Several long seconds and rounds of nervous laughter later, Pangilinan responded: he had nothing but praises for the Ayala-led fintech.
“Kudos to GCash for the valuation that’s been reported, about $5 billion. They’ve done a great job these past few years,” the telco tycoon said.
Pangilinan had always been generous with his respect for GCash, even admitting two months ago that it was more popular than Maya, but he indicated that he wasn’t taking it standing down.
“It’s been disappointing for Maya,” Pangilinan said. “I think we have to do something about their performance.”
The PLDT and Smart chairperson said he had sat down with Maya’s shareholders.
“That round of discussion has started,” Pangilinan said. “So I think it’s premature for me to indicate what the game plan is.”
Although Pangilinan’s group has their “own ideas” for what Maya should be doing, they can’t make that decision alone, even if the telco giant is the single largest shareholder of Maya Innovations Holdings. The other are all international heavyweights: Hong Kong-based First Pacific (also one of PLDT’s top investors), American investment company KKR, and Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent, among others.
While Maya may be falling behind GCash in the digital wallet race, it’s still a market leader in digital banking and payment services. Maya Bank has about four million bank customers, with deposits growing 32% year-on-year to P32.8 billion. The digital bank has also disbursed P46.8 billion loans to 1.2 million borrowers. On its payment processing side, Maya also retains its position as the top processor of payment transactions for credit and debit cards and QRPH transactions.
Losses recognized by PLDT from the digital bank have also trimmed to P0.7 billion in H1 2024 from P1.2 billion in the same period in 2023. Net losses for a fledgling digital bank are not considered all too worrisome, given that most digital banks in the country have yet to become profitable. (READ: [Finterest] Is a digital bank safe, and how can you best use it?)
According to Pangilinan, Maya is still “trending towards breakeven performance for the month of December,” although the arrival of more digital banks in 2025 could give it some added trouble to deal with.
“It means more competition,” he said on Tuesday. “We have to do better than what we’re doing currently.” — Rappler.com