Jollibee Foods Corp. said listing its Vietnam businesses may take longer to materialize as it works to improve the numbers of its operations in the Southeast Asian country.
Operating under the Superfoods Group unit, the operation has Highlands Coffee brand in its portfolio. Noodle House Pho24 was previously under Superfoods before Jollibee sold it to part-owner Viet Thai International Joint Stock Co. earlier this year.
Richard Shin, Jollibee chief finance officer, said the company is not in a rush for the IPO plan.
In 2016, Jollibee revealed plans to list Superfoods in Vietnam stock exchange for Superfoods as early as 2019 but it did not materialize due to the pandemic.
Shin said taking the Vietnam business public remains part of the company’s strategy, particularly for the coffee business “only at the right valuation that maximizes for our shareholders, and at the right time as well.”
“We haven’t really expanded this brand into many countries. So therefore, I think there’s a few steps ahead of IPO (initial public offering),” Shin said.
Shin said Jollibee has around 700 Highlands Coffee stores, majority of which are in Vietnam.
There are 40 stores in the Philippines, run by a franchisee.
“We think there’s plenty of room to grow. In fact, in Vietnam, there are over 100,000 Vietnamese coffee shops.It’s a very interesting and unique market,” he added.
Stockbroker Abacus Securities Corp. in an investors note agreed with Shin’s statement of a further delay in the Vietnam business’ IPO.
“While systemwide sales in the second quarter was up 7.6 percent, same-store sales were down 8.2 percent due to heavy competition and macroeconomic headwinds in Vietnam.
Management is still pursuing expansion while expecting a rebound in Q4 but we are not sure given the price of robusta coffee there. As a result, the IPO is probably going to be delayed further,” it said.
Abacus, however, noted Jollibee said Highlands Coffee still maintained its leadership with its competitors dropping double digits.
Abacus said the listing of Superfoods was supposed to be a catalyst for Jollibee’s share price. – Ruelle Castro
