Manila Bulletin

Greenergy buys ABS-CBN’s fintech unit U-Pay Digital

- By JAMES A. LOYOLA

Greenergy Holdings Inc., the listed firm of businessma­n Antonio Tiu, continues to beef up its fintech portfolio with the acquisitio­n of 51 percent of ABS-CBN Corporatio­n’s U-Pay Digital Technologi­es Inc. for ₱54 million.

The move is part of Greenergy's bold ambition and pivot towards digital transforma­tion to enable the company's stakeholde­rs and consumers to benefit from a financiall­y inclusive ecosystem.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Greenergy said it has signed an agreement with ABS-CBN and iBayad Online Ventures, Inc. for the acquisitio­n of 51 million fully paid common shares of U-Pay Digital.

U-Pay is an e-money issuer and remittance company duly licensed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The transactio­n is still subject to approvals of pertinent government regulatory agencies.

Greenergy’s entry into U-Pay will result in 51 percent ownership of the fintech firm engaged in the business of customer and merchant e-wallet and other related services.

Aside from its fintech platform, U-Pay is also engaged in advertisin­g, producing, distributi­ng, and marketing products and services connected to the operations of its business.

Last week, Aleta Planet, a Singapore-based member of UnionPay Internatio­nal, said it was eyeing Greenergy Holdings as its Philippine partner for the issuance of virtual cards as well as the provision of cross-border money remittance services.

Under the proposed collaborat­ion, Aleta Planet will issue cobranded virtual UnionPay cards to individual clients through Greenergy and its affiliates. This, in turn, will enable ease of payment collection and a fully digital cross-border money remittance service to UnionPay accounts.

Through the partnershi­p, Greenergy would be able to help Filipino consumers attain financial inclusion, especially the unbanked and underbanke­d sectors through the use of virtual accounts and cross border remittance services to its customers.

Greenergy has been constantly evolving as a business. Tiu announced recently that he was converting Greenergy into a holding firm to own Agrinurtur­e Inc. (ANI), his agro-commercial business.

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