JFC eyeing $300 million from dollar notes

MANILA, Philippines — Asian food conglomerate Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) is looking to raise at least $300 million from the offshore debt market to refinance its existing borrowings.

In an online press briefing, JFC chief financial and risk officer Richard Shin said the company is looking at a minimum of $300 million from its planned offering of dollar-denominated senior unsecured guaranteed notes.

“So if you go lower than that, it’s very hard to get attraction from some of the larger investors. We wanted to make sure that potential investors out there have the best vehicle to invest in us,” Shin said.

“We don’t have just the local investors. We also have international investors. So the capital market is very excited, very keen, because we’re a very low credit risk company, as you know, as you see through our numbers,” he said.

JFC’s wholly owned subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. (JWPL) has tapped several banks to arrange a series of fixed-income investor meetings starting on March 24 after which a Regulation S only five-year dollar-denominated senior unsecured guaranteed notes offering may follow, subject to market conditions.

JFC intends to use proceeds from the contemplated offering for JWPL’s general corporate purposes as well as for refinancing of its existing borrowings.

JFC has set a strategic roadmap for the next five years as part of its vision to become among the top five restaurant companies in the world.

As it continues to penetrate big markets, the group is optimistic on seeing a growth trajectory in the next five years, aiming to triple its value in terms of net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company in five years

Shin, however, said that a dual listing for JFC, a company listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange, is not seen as the right path for the company at the moment.

“I think dual listing could solve some challenges like liquidity, exposure to new capital market, etc. So we’ve looked at that, and long story short, it doesn’t address what we need,” Shin said.

“Having said that, we do think tapping into a capital market like the US at some stage where a company is at the right stage in size. I think it’s definitely on the list of what a CFO should do. So we always look at it, but we don’t want to rush. We don’t want to do it because it’s sexy to do that. We want to do it because it makes sense for the shareholders. It’s always about the shareholder returns for us,” he said.