Casual dining company Pancake House Inc. Monday said it had acquired the café bakery brand Le Coeur de France for roughly P105 million, strengthening its foray into the international market.

In an interview, Pancake House chairman Martin Lorenzo said the company planned to launch the French bread and bakery line in Vietnam, a former French colony, after the success of Pancake House’s expansion in Malaysia.

Pancake House said in a separate disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange that it had purchased 260,000 shares of Boulangerie Francaise Inc., representing 100 percent of Boulangerie’s issued and outstanding shares, for P30 million.

Pancake House International Inc., the company’s wholly owned vehicle for its international franchising business purchased the trademark “Le Coeur de France” and all its related intellectual property rights from trademark owner Baratow Limited for the US dollar equivalent of P53 million.

Pancake House also infused P22 million into Boulangerie to be used in settling a portion of the latter’s outstanding payables.

Le Coeur has a network of 13 café bakeries in the Philippines, mostly in shopping malls in Metro Manila.

It also supplies bread and bakery products to hotels, restaurants and airline caterers.

Pancake House plans to expand the outlets to up to 30 in the next 18 months. This expansion is expected to contribute P40 million to the company’s earnings.

With the acquisition of Le Coeur, the Pancake House Group will have 150 stores, generating sales of P3 billion this year, Lorenzo said. He added that, aside from Le Coeur, Pancake House would launch its Japanese restaurant Teriyaki Boy in Vietnam.

Pancake House plans to spend P50 million for the expansion of its brands in Vietnam.

In Malaysia, it will also spend P30-P40 million to put up four new Pancake House stores.

Pancake House recently penetrated untapped markets with new brands such as “Singkit,” its Chinese take-out and delivery service, and the newly opened “Pepper Steak” at Trinoma mall in Quezon City. It also owns bar and grill restaurant chain Dencio’s. Edited by INQUIRER.net