Jollibee owner ventures into property dev’t

Tony Tan Caktiong: From fast food to real estate. Photo from Facebook

Fastfood chain magnate Tony Tan Caktiong and entrepreneur Edgar “Injap” Sia II have teamed up on the property development business that they envision to be one of the country’s biggest property developers by 2020.

The two have formed a joint venture firm, DoubleDragon Properties Corp., to venture into commercial, residential and even foray into public-private partnership (PPP) projects. Sia, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said the upstart property company was also planning to debut on the Philippine Stock Exchange “when the right time comes.”

DoubleDragon was previously known as Injap Land Corp., which started in 2009 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Sia’s holding company Injap Investments Inc. Recently, Tan Caktiong’s HoneyStar Holdings acquired 50 percent of the company, thus becoming an equal venture and renamed as such.

“I enjoy the journey of now jumpstarting and assembling DoubleDragon and setting a big dream for the company. It’s just like how it was eight years ago when Mang Inasal was starting out,” Sia said in an e-mail interview with the Inquirer.

Sia—who sold a 70-percent interest in the Mang Inasal grilled chicken chain to Tan Caktiong-led Jollibee Foods Corp. in 2010—also said a future listing for DoubleDragon would be a way to share the “company of the future” to other prospective stock investors.

Property development has always been a dream business for him, which was why he ventured into property development in 2009, Sia said. For now DoubleDragon’s projects and landholdings are in Iloilo and Roxas. “But we also intend to venture anywhere in the Philippines as the opportunity arises, for horizontal and vertical projects, both for commercial and residential developments, including retail commercial spaces and office spaces except condotel or hotel projects,” Sia said.

Sia’s group has interests in condotel and hotel projects under a separate company called Hotel of Asia Inc., formed in 2010 as a partnership among Injap Investments Inc., Oishi Liwayway Marketing Corp. and Steineil Development Corp.

Even prior to the entry of Tan Caktiong’s group as partner, Injap Land completed and fully sold the People’s Condominium project, the first condominium in Iloilo City within its first three years of operations. This year, DoubleDragon is set to complete its first horizontal project, the 111-unit First Homes Village in Mandurriao, Iloilo City. “Both projects gave us the experience and learn the ropes of property development and the experience will greatly equip us in our future bigger projects,” Sia said.

With the real estate industry in the Philippines at its peak and already dominated by the big players, Sia said the upstart DoubleDragon intended to initially work on pocket developments to accumulate more experience while bracing for new opportunities that might come along the way. “We also intend to position DoubleDragon ahead for the next cycle of a property development boom in the coming years,” Sia said.

While Sia and his siblings handle the management and provide the dynamism for Double Dragon, he said Tan Caktiong and his siblings would “bring in the wisdom and support given their [more than] 30 years of experience in successfully managing and professionalizing Jollibee.” He said another advantage was that the Jollibee Group owned several food brands and could create synergy in DoubleDragon development projects.

Initial investment in DoubleDragon is estimated at P500 million.

Sia said the name DoubleDragon came about as he, 35, and Tan Caktiong, 59, were both born in the Lunar Year of the Dragon. “And coincidentally, the DoubleDragon deal was also finalized this year, also a year of the Dragon. We are also both Capricorn. I and Tito Tony are also both born in the month of January. My father and my son are also born in the year of the Dragon,” he said.