Ayala's Mynt stake sale gets antitrust nod

The Zobel family’s Ayala Corp. (AC) has closed the sale of a 6.5-percent stake in GCash owner Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt) to longtime partner Mitsubishi Corp. for P18.4 billion after the deal was cleared by the antitrust watchdog Philippine Competition Commission (PCC).

- JAMES A. LOYOLA

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Ayala said it has sold half of wholly owned AC Ventures Holding Corp. (ACV) to Mitsubishi. ACV owns about 13 percent of Mynt.

Mynt has two financial technology (fintech) companies: G-Xchange Inc., the mobile wallet operator of GCash, and Fuse Lending, a tech-based microlender.

The PCC has cleared the deal after finding that Mitsubishi’s investment in ACV would not significantly reduce competition in the market for QR code-based digital payments to merchants.

The PCC noted in its decision the relatively small market share held by GCash in the provision of QR-based person-to-merchant payments.