Jollibee, Vietnam partner to list Highlands Coffee

MANILA, Philippines - Homegrown Asian food service firm Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) and partner Viet Thai International Joint Stock Co. plan to list their Highlands Coffee business in the Vietnam Stock Exchange.

In a disclosure to the local bourse, JFC said it entered into an agreement with VTI to bring their joint venture business, Superfoods Group, public by July 2019.

“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,” JFC chairman Tony Tan Caktiong said.

The Superfoods Group owns and operates 159 Highlands Coffee outlets, 33 Pho24 restaurants, and three Hard Rock Café stores.

For his part, Superfoods Group CEO Thai Phi Diep said the planned IPO would raise capital that would allow them to expand Highlands Coffee and Pho24 broadly in Vietnam as well as in other parts of Asia and in key cities in the world.

With annual sales of $55 million, the Superfoods Group is one of JFC’s fastest expanding joint venture businesses, growing by over 30 percent for the first nine months of the year.

With the planned IPO, ownership of Superfoods Group will be adjusted with JFC owning 60 percent of the joint venture while the remaining 40 percent will be held by VTI.

The agreement also calls for JFC to extend a $30 million loan to VTI.

The Superfoods Group aims to offer Asian consumers high quality coffee and cafe experience at affordable prices through the Highlands Coffee shops and its packaged products.

As of the end of October, JFC had over 2,500 restaurant outlets nationwide and 671 stores abroad. JFC also wholly owns and operates 80 Jollibee Vietnam outlets, with annual sales of $25 million.

Meanwhile, the company grew its net income by 10.3 percent to P4.37 billion during the nine month period. System wide sales, a measure of all sales to consumers both from company-owned and franchised stores, increased by14.1 percent.