MerryMart IPO Listing Ceremony held today June 15, 2020 at the Philippine Stock

Exchange.

The momentous ceremony was led by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, PSE

President Ramon Monzon and MerryMart Chairman Edgar Injap Sia II.

MerryMart IPO Listing speech message of Injap Sia June 15, 2020 @ PSE

Merry Morning Everyone! Merry Morning to everyone joining us here in person and on

livestream.

Let me start by giving huge Thanks to the Honorable Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III for

gracing this momentous event, and most importantly for steering well the Philippine economy

through this very challenging period.

This IPO of MerryMart, done during this global pandemic is far better than any kind of survey,

because this is a real thermometer of the underlying state of our economy. It shows that our

economy is alive and ready to begin bouncing back. And this IPO will not be possible if our

government just did nothing. Our economy is tiding through the rough waters well, and that is

possible because of the well thought out and decisive decisions that were put in. Definitely a 

lot of thought, work and intervention, unseen by most of us, was done to get our economy to

survive.

So, Thank you Secretary Dominguez.

Thank you as well Secretary, for the reforms and initiatives that you have initiated and continue

to do in trying to level the business playing field and trying to take out the unnecessary

obstacles that have been placed which discourages new entrepreneurs to grow and compete fair

and square in this country. Thank you for giving entrepreneurs like me, and many others around

the country, the chance and opportunity through your reforms.

Again, Thank you Secretary Dominguez.

Now I want to thank the PSE and its Board for the approval of this IPO. Indeed, this institution

is an enabler, allowing companies even the newer ones, to tap the capital markets so that they

can grow and expand. I commend the PSE team, some of them I was able to meet in the course

of our application. I am looking forward that you will continue to be objective and idealistic,

and by keeping your doors wide open for smaller and newer companies like MerryMart, but

beaming with opportunity for growth and expansion, because that is what our country needs to

be truly inclusive and sustainable.

Some people may ask, why continue to conduct an IPO in the middle of this pandemic.? We’ll,

if you really analyze, many of the most successful businesses around the world, was either

started during a crisis, or has deepened its market grip during the crisis period. Because

actually, during a highly challenging period like where we are now, the large established

players’ huge size and heaviness, suddenly becomes a disadvantage, and natural to a major

crisis comes the repositioning of elements, such as, a major change of customer behavior,

which suddenly, the pile of money alone, can not solve.

In fact, it is during periods like this, during unprecedented times like this, when the mountains

of revenue or income that a large company has generated the past 10, 20, or 30 years will have

not much use or value. What is most important in times like these, is to have a relevant and

well innovated business model, and the company and the team have to be quick and nimble

enough, to adjust and calibrate simultaneously, as the dust of the crisis settles and emerge

successfully, stronger than ever, and move forward to the future in an even better market

position.

To expound further on that, this is this example. It’s like comparing a big ship and a small boat.

Being in a major crisis like what we have today, it is like being in a war. And a giant company

is like a very a big ship with complete sophisticated systems and dashboard in the deck which

only works well during good times, when the inputs to it are stable. During a major, once-ina-

generation crisis like this global pandemic, suddenly the levers in the sophisticated dashboard

malfunctions, and is of little use, then the big ship panics. Then the odds suddenly favor the

success rate of tiding through of the team in the small boat rather than the bigger one, as they

are used to have very little resources, used to the start-up environment of being like in a crisis

everyday for the first 5-7 years, and the team is used to plainly rely on their basic five natural

senses, to navigate their way towards their destination, passing through both calm and rough

seas, day in and day out.