Jollibee boosts stake in Tim Ho Wan chain

Customers can look forward to more Jollibee stores opening their doors in the coming months and years. Photos above feature Jollibee Sipocot, Camarines Sur which opened in March 2023.

MANILA  -Fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) invested an additional P324.41 million (7.7 million Singapore dollars, or SGD) to expand the operations of Michelin-star Asian restaurant chain Tim Ho Wan as it remains focused on the goal of increasing store count to 100 across Asia.

The company behind the popular Chickenjoy meals said on Tuesday that its subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. (JWPL) had acquired an additional 2 percent participating interest in Titan Dining LP, the private equity fund owning the Tim Ho Wan brand, by buying another investor’s ownership in the fund.

JWPL now holds a 92-percent participating interest in the dimsum casual dining chain that was established in Mongkok, Hong Kong, in 2009 by Chef Mak Kwai Pui, formerly of Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong, and Chef Leung Fai Keung.

The total commitment of the JFC subsidiary to the fund now amounts to around P17.44 billion (414 million SGD) or 92 percent of the pie. Titan has increased the fund size to 450 million SGD from 350 million SGD to finance store expansion plans and working capital requirements.

READ: Jollibee gains 100% control of Tim Ho Wan

Tim Ho Wan operates 78 restaurants across Asia, 40 of which are in China. Some 11 are in Singapore and the remaining nine are in the Philippines.

Jollibee, which is among Asia’s leading food service companies, first invested in Titan in May 2018 amounting to 45 million SGD for 45-percent participating interest. The company infused more investments through the years before eventually acquiring full ownership in August 2021.

By November 2021, additional investors entered the fund with 10 percent ownership, diluting JFC’s stake to 90 percent at the time.

Aside from Tim Ho Wan, JFC’s other brands serving Chinese cuisine are Chowking, Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan and Panda Express.

READ: Sales do heavy lifting for Jollibee in absence of one-off gain

JFC’s store network includes 6,805 stores as of the end-November last year, with some 3,318 in the Philippines. The others are spread out in China, North America, Vietnam and Europe, Middle East and Africa. Its flagship brand is Jollibee with 1,645 stores; followed by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, 1,146; Highlands Coffee, 757; Chowking, 614; and Mang Inasal, 571.

In May last year, Jollibee announced its exit from Vietnamese noodle chain venture PHO24 after selling its stake to East-West Restaurant Concepts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Viet Thai International Joint Stock Co.

Jollibee saw its net income from January to September last year drop by 5.7 percent to P6.8 billion due to absence of one-time gain. Revenues, however, climbed by 18 percent to P177.4 billion on the back of 19-percent system-wide sales growth for the nine-month period. INQ