DICT’s Aguda calls on tech firms to go public

Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda on Thursday called on technology companies operating in the Philippines to go public through initial public offerings (IPOs) in a bid to revitalize the country’s stock market.

During Grab Philippines’ launch of its “Asenso Center” livelihood hub in Marikina City, Aguda quipped, “Grab, tutal matagal na kayong nago-operate dito baka naman pwede na kayo mag-IPO.”

(Grab, since you’ve been operating here for so long, maybe you can do an IPO.)

Sought for further details at the sidelines of the event, the DICT chief told reporters that encouraging technology companies, such as Grab, to offer their shares to the investing public would be the agency’s advocacy “to revitalize the stock market.”

Aguda cited other countries’ stock markets, wherein the top-performing stocks or those with higher market capitalization are those of tech firms.

“So it’s high time that we move to a situation wherein if there is a startup or new tech company… they can do IPO,” he said.

“I’m a big advocate of that… because if a country’s capital market is mature, the economic development is much faster,” he added.

For his part, Grab Philippines country head Ronald Roda said that he cannot comment yet on Aguda’s call for the tech company to list in the local stock market since the matter should be an internal decision within its Singapore-listed parent firm.

Nonetheless, Roda said that Grab is a “serious investor in the Philippines.”

One of the most anticipated IPOs in the country, along with Maynilad’s, is that of tech unicorn Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt), the operator of mobile wallet GCash. —VAL, GMA Integrated News