Philippines (asialaw)

Work highlights

Advising Navegar and Leapfrog, two Singapore-based private equity firms, on their strategic joint venture with GCMC Holdings, a leading regional healthcare provider in the Philippines. The transaction is designed to accelerate GCMC's growth by expanding bed capacity, introducing new specialty services, and upgrading existing facilities — with a particular focus on underserved communities outside Metro Manila and Cebu where access to quality medical care remains limited. The deal is significant for the broader Philippine healthcare landscape, addressing a persistent gap in the availability of specialised medical services in regional areas and reducing the burden on patients who would otherwise have to travel long distances for treatment.

Advising Globe Fintech Innovations (Mynt) and Electronic Commerce Payments (ECPay) in securing Philippine Competition Commission clearance for Mynt's acquisition of 100% of the shares in ECPay. Mynt operates GCash, the country's leading mobile wallet, while ECPay provides digital payment solutions through thousands of partner outlets including neighbourhood sari-sari stores — making the combined entity a formidable force across the Philippine digital payments landscape. The outcome is notable as conditional clearances backed by binding voluntary commitments remain relatively uncommon in Philippine merger control practice, and the multi-regulator consultation process reflects the increasingly complex intersection of competition law, data privacy, and financial regulation in the digital economy.