Jollibee Foods Corp. sets expansion by buying into Asian restaurant groups

MANILA, Philippines —Local fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. has mapped out a $60-million Asian expansion by firming up a deal to buy half of the business of a food group that operates a chain of Highlands Coffee, Hard Rock Cafe and Pho24 restaurants across the region.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, JFC said it had formally initiated the process for owning 50 percent of the business of the SuperFoods Group consisting of a 49 percent interest in SF Vung Tau Joint Stock Co. in Vietnam and a 60 percent stake in Blue Sky Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong.

The framework provided for JFC to invest $25 million to acquire 50 percent of SuperFoods business and a $35-million loan to its prospective partner Viet Thai International Joint Stock Co. (VTI) through their joint venture in SuperFoods.

JFC has also advanced $5 million to the SuperFoods group, which very recently acquired Pho24, which has 48 stores across the region, specifically in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Cambodia and Japan. Pho24, which serves Vietnamese dish with rice noodles as its core product, has two stores in the Philippines – one in Power Plant mall and another at the Ayala Triangle gardens.

The globalizing Philippine restaurant group is making this investment through wholly owned subsidiary JSF Investments Pte. Ltd., a unit of Jollibee Worldwide Pte Ltd organized in Singapore. Its ownership of 50 percent of the SuperFoods Group would be completed upon the fulfillment of certain conditions, the disclosure said.

The disclosure noted that since the initial framework was signed last May, the parties had since then established the legal structure for the joint venture, conducted due diligence and completed the acquisition of the Pho24 business.

The SuperFoods group, which has annual sales of about $30 million, owns and operates various brands including Highlands Coffee Shops in Vietnam, Highlands Coffee Packaged Products as well as Hard Rock Cafe franchised stores in Macau, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Highlands Coffee serves Vietnamese coffee and light meals in 54 trendy coffee shops in Vietnam. It also sells packaged coffee through retail outlets.

Together with its prospective partner VTI, JFC said SuperFoods would aim “to offer Asian mass consumers high quality coffee and cafe experience at affordable prices through the Highlands Coffee Shops and the Highlands Packaged Products.” They also seek to serve Asian mass consumers “high-quality Vietnamese food at affordable prices” through the Pho24 brand and restaurants.

JFC also plans to serve Highlands Coffee in the restaurants of its various brands “in order to upgrade the quality of its coffee at prices its consumers can afford.”

The disclosure added that in the Philippines, the franchising rights for operating Highlands Coffee was granted to IP Ventures Inc. pursuant to an agreement made on Dec. 20 between IP Ventures and Blue Sky Holdings.

IP Ventures, a company controlled by IPVG Corp., operates the largest chain of Internet cafes in the Philippines with 116 outlets under the brand Netopia.