Hotel101 advances listing plan in Nasdaq

MANILA, Philippines — DoubleDragon has advanced further plans to list its Singapore-based hospitality subsidiary Hotel101 Global on the US Nasdaq, with the signing of a business combination agreement with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) eyed next month.

DoubleDragon said Hotel101 Global is looking to sign the definitive SPAC business combination merger agreement with its chosen SPAC sponsor in March, followed by the official filing of its prospectus, subject to the US regulatory approvals.

The subsidiary of the listed holding company of tycoon Edgar “Injap” Sia is seen becoming the very first Filipino company to list via SPAC in the Nasdaq.

DoubleDragon said the SPAC listing would enable its hotel subsidiary to not only increase its equity capital base, but also make the brand become more relevant overseas, which in turn would further strengthen DoubleDragon’s consolidated balance sheet.

In line with the planned SPAC listing, Hotel101 Global has officially reserved the Nasdaq stock exchange ticker symbol HBNB.

“In a nutshell Hotel101 is a uniform and consistent BNB, or a branded uniform bite-size hotel investment, as far as we know it’s the first and only in the world. The global patent application has been filed,” DoubleDragon said, referring to why it chose the ticker symbol HBNB.

DoubleDragon sees Hotel101 becoming one of the major brands, concept, and business model export of the Philippines, saying that its asset-light business model could become one of the major sources of US dollar inflow to the Philippines from 2025 onwards.

It is also aiming to become the most tech-advanced hotel company since its mid-end market typical rooms can optimize the use of technology since the rooms are all the same.

“The opportunity that we see globally in the hospitality space is that of standardization because we believe it brings unbeatable efficiency, especially for the mid-end segment. Take for example the budget airline industry – essentially all budget airlines sell one product across the whole industry and that product is the economy seat,” Sia said.