Jollibee Logo since 2011(Wikipedia)
MANILA, Nov. 21 (PNA) – Fastfood giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) has sealed a deal to make its joint venture company, Superfoods Group, a publicly traded company on the Vietnam Stock Exchange in line with plans to expand its business in Vietnam and other key cities in the world.
JFC told the local bourse it entered into an agreement through its subsidiary, JSF Investments Pte. Ltd. (JSF), with its joint venture partner, Viet Thai International Joint Stock Company (VTI), to launch the initial public offering (IPO) of Superfoods on or before July 2019.
The Superfoods joint venture owns and operates the brands Highlands Coffee and Pho 24 and is a franchisee of Hard Rock Café. Highlands Coffee has 159 outlets, Pho 24 with 33 stores while Hard Rock Café has three outlets.
The Superfoods joint venture, which has annual sales of USD55 million, is one of the fastest growing joint venture businesses of JFC, growing by 36 percent for the first nine months of 2016 with Highlands Coffee growing by about 78 percent over the same period last year.
“We are very excited about our planned IPO of Superfoods. Our fastest growing business in terms of country is Vietnam and this reflects the vibrancy and potential of the economy and the strong performance of our joint venture business,” said JFC Chairman Tony Tan Caktiong.
Tan Caktiong expressed confidence that with the strong capability of its partner and the support of its organization in the Philippines, “we will have a truly significant business in Vietnam”.
Superfoods Group Chief Executive Officer and founder of Highlands Coffee Thai Phi Diep said, “We look forward to making Highlands Coffee and Pho 24 true national champion brands of Vietnam. Our planned IPO will raise capital to enable us to expand these two brands broadly in Vietnam, in other parts of Asia and in other key cities in the world. Our joint effort with the people of Jollibee Foods Corporation will make this possible”.
As part of the agreement to bring Superfoods into the Vietnam Stock Exchange, the ownership of Superfoods Group will be adjusted with JFC, through JSF, owning 60 percent of joint venture while VTI will own 40 percent.
The number of shares to be sold at the time of the IPO and the price per share will be determined by that time based on the capitalization required to significantly grow the business and the fair value of the business.
As part of this agreement, certain financing structures will be changed, affecting the Superfoods Group and its owner-partners.
As a result of this transaction, JFC will include the Superfoods Group in its financial consolidation. JSF will also provide a USD30-million loan to its partner, VTI.
JFC operates the largest food service network in the Philippines. As of Oct. 31, 2016, it operated 2,565 restaurant outlets in the country under Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal and Burger King brands.
Abroad, it was operating 671 stores that sell Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan, San Pin Wang, Dunkin’ Donuts, Jollibee, Red Ribbon, Chowking and Jinja Bar. The JFC Group had a total of 3,236 stores worldwide.
JFC also has a 48-percent interest in joint ventures for 12 Hotpot (China) 16 and 40-percent interest in Smashburger that had 378 outlets, mostly in the United States.
These joint ventures, together with the Superfoods Group’s 200 stores have a total of 594 stores worldwide, which are currently not included in JFC’s consolidated store count.
JFC fully owns and operates Jollibee Vietnam. There are 80 Jollibee outlets in Vietnam with an annual sales of USD25 million and growing by 50 percent in 2016 over 2015.
Together with Superfoods Group, the JFC business has one of the fastest growing consumer business in Vietnam.