Philippine telecommunications giant PLDT is keen on acquiring private equity major KKR’s stake in its fintech subsidiary Maya Innovations, the company’s chairman and CEO Manuel Pangilinan said on Thursday.
In an earnings briefing, Pangilinan said PLDT is keen to increase its stake as KKR was reported to have tapped Goldman Sachs to explore a sale of its minority holding in Maya, which competes with GCash in the Philippines.
KKR holds around 30% of Maya, formerly called Voyager Innovations. It is not certain, though, that KKR will sell.
“We know they (KKR) are trying to scan the market for the value of Maya, so you see Maya is just starting to turn the corner. We’d be keen to increase our stake for whatever might be available,” Pangilinan told reporters.
PLDT said its 2024 net income rose 21% to 32.3 billion pesos ($558 million) as Maya Innovations Holdings became profitable in December, backed by the strong performance of its digital banking arm.
Founded in 2013, Maya offers mobile money and payments (under the PayMaya brand), mobile-based remittances (Smart Padala), and solutions for businesses to receive online and card payments (PayMaya Business).
PLDT, KKR, GIC, Tencent, and International Finance Corporation (IFC) first invested $215 million in Maya in 2018 and backed the firm’s $120-million funding round in 2020.
Maya Innovation’s Top Shareholders
In its local market, Maya competes with players such as Global Telecom’s fintech arm Mynt, which became the first Philippine tech unicorn after raising over $300 million in 2021. Mynt operates GCash.
In 2022, the company achieved unicorn status after raising $210 million in a funding round that valued it at nearly $1.4 billion. The funding round was led by SIG Venture Capital, the Asian venture capital arm of SIG.
DealStreetAsia also reported last year that Maya Innovations posted lower losses and higher revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023.
In a filing with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA), Maya Innovations disclosed that its total comprehensive loss in 2023 was 6.1 billion pesos ($109 million), about 25% lower from 8.1 billion pesos ($145 million) in 2022.
In a separate development, Pangilinan said PLDT’s negotiations with European fund manager CVC Capital Partners for the sale of a minority stake in its data centre business ePLDT, Inc. have ended.
“We are in discussions at the moment with another potential foreign investor,” he added, declining to name the party.
PLDT, through ePLDT, operates 11 data centres, including a 50-megawatt hyperscale facility in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Previous talks with Japan’s Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) for the potential sale of up to 49% of ePLDT were also dropped.
