Homegrown fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. is selling out of a niche restaurant business in the US to focus on its larger businesses in this big overseas market.
Jollibee’s wholly-owned subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. (JPWL) is divesting its 80.55 percent stake in Chow Fun Holdings LLC (Chow Fun) – developer and owner of Jinja Bar and Bistro, the fast-food chain disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Jinja Bar has three restaurants in New Mexico, two in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe.
Jollibee acquired an initial 12 percent stake in Chow Fund in 2008 and hiked its stake to 80.55 percent in 2011.
Under the divestment deal, Chow Fun will pay JPWL $1.6 million in readily available funds to redeem JPWL’s 2,900 membership units.
Jollibee’s biggest business in North America, to date, is premium hamburger chain Smashbuger which has 378 stores, mostly in the US. It also operates 34 Jollibee stores, 33 Red Ribbon stores and 16 Chowking stores in the US.