The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved a stock split for Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), the owner of GCash, a move intended to lower the per-share price and make the stock more affordable for its long-anticipated initial public offering (IPO).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), parent company Globe Telecom said Mynt received its Amended Articles of Incorporation as approved by the SEC.

As such, the number of common shares will be 71.66 billion ₱0.03 per share. Mynt’s authorized capital stock of ₱2.15 billion will remain the same.

The stock split reduces the par value of Mynt’s common shares from ₱1.00 to ₱0.03 per share, thereby increasing the number of authorized common shares from 2.15 billion to 71.66 billion.

Mynt has yet to file its registration statement for its planned IPO as the company and its shareholders wait for a more opportune time to go public, as current market conditions remain challenging.

Last March, the SEC approved a proposal made by the PSE to exempt giant initial public offerings such as that of GCash from the 20 percent minimum public float requirement.

“We have been able to get an approval from the SEC where companies that want to offer ₱5 billion or more can actually offer less than 20 percent,” said PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon.

He added that, under the exemption, “They can offer 15 percent with a commitment that they will do a follow-on offering or a private placement in the next two or three years to comply in the 20 percent requirement.”

Mynt has been asking for an exemption from the rule, considering that the stock market is currently having liquidity problems and may not be able to absorb its IPO if they are required to offer 20 percent of its outstanding shares.

The company said earlier that it will seek a valuation of $8.0 billion when it goes public, possibly by year’s end. This would value a 20 percent IPO at $1.6 billion.

While the fintech is gearing up for an IPO, the company said market conditions need to be right, and they're not in a hurry to go public. In addition, it believes that the current minimum float of 20 percent is too high and that 10 percent to 15 percent would be ideal.

This would value the IPO at $800 million to $1.2 billion—just below the $1.3 billion IPO of Monde Nissin Corp., which is historically the biggest IPO in the Philippine stock market. However, in peso terms, this will be bigger than the ₱48.6 billion raised by Monde Nissin.

“Even at the low point of this range, an $800 million offering could be the country's biggest ever,” noted Abacus Securities Corp.