Maya returned to profit in the first semester ’25
Popular e-wallet Maya Philippines turned profitable in the first semester, a turnaround from last year amid tight competition.
Maya chair Manuel Pangilinan told reporters last week the company was “doing very well” and showed “good profitability” in the January to June period.
Although the mobile wallet platform has yet to release its financial results for the first semester, this comes as a spillover from the first quarter. Back then, Maya benefited from strong lending.
Maya’s net income in the first three months of 2025 reached P300 million. This translates to a share of P127 million for PLDT Inc., which holds a 38-percent stake in the e-wallet.
The first-quarter result represented a turnaround from the P400-million loss last year.
Pangilinan earlier noted that Maya’s good start may enable it to exceed P1 billion in earnings by the end of 2025.
With such a performance from Maya, the main competitor of Ayala-backed GCash, Pangilinan confirmed they were in “very preliminary” discussions to buy the minority stake of global investment firm KKR. This is meant to increase the shareholding of PLDT.
Reuters earlier reported that KKR owned more than 20 percent of Maya, and that the potential sale could value the company at more than $2 billion.
Online gambling
Meanwhile, Pangilinan confirmed that Maya did have gaming revenues. This was amid the clamor for stricter measures to regulate the online gaming sector, which is accessible through e-wallets.
According to the billionaire, gaming revenues account for 10 to 20 percent of Maya’s total revenues.
“It’s not a major contributor to the revenue or to the gross transaction value [of Maya],” Pangilinan said.
He also noted that Maya had safeguards to help curb online gaming, although he did not elaborate.
Fintech Alliance Philippines, the country’s largest organization of financial technology companies, earlier issued a statement backing calls to have “strictly controlled” access to online gaming via e-wallet platforms by implementing “robust due diligence” measures.
According to the group, GCash and Maya facilitate over 90 percent of digital transaction volumes in the country.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian has filed a bill seeking to raise the minimum cash-in for online gambling to P10,000 and top-up to P5,000.
