Jollibee Foods to increase capital in Tim Ho Wan owner

Homegrown fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) is increasing capital of Titan Dining LP, the private equity fund which owns the Tim Ho Wan brand and company-owned Tim Ho Wan stores.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, JFC said its wholly-owned subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. (JWPL) is hiking capital commitment to Titan LP to SGD315,000,000.

With this, the fund size of Titan LP will increase from SGD250,000,000 to SGD350,000,000.

The increase in fund size will “fund the store expansion plans and working capital requirements of Tim Ho Wan as well as facilitate the completion of other projects.”

Currently, JWPL has a 90% participating interest in Titan LP, according to JFC.

In May 2018, JFC through JWPL invested SGD45 million in Titan LP to own a 45% participating interest in the master franchisee of Tim Ho Wan in the Asia Pacific region.

Titan LP had a fund size of SGD100 million at that time. The company also stated that it would have the opportunity to acquire a substantial ownership of Titan LP purchase mechanism provided for in the investment agreement.

To prepare for this eventuality, JFC set up a franchise operation of Tim Ho Wan in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China (PRC).

In October 2019, JFC disclosed that JWPL’s capital commitment to Titan LP increased from SGD45 million to SGD120 million, its participating interest increased to 60% and the fund size of Titan LP increased from SGD100 million to SGD200 million.

In October 2020, JFC’s participating interest in Titan LP increased further from 60% to 85% after JWPL purchased the 25% participating interest of another investor in the private equity fund for a total consideration of SGD36.3 million.

In August 2021, JFC eventually purchased the remaining 15% of other investors in Titan LP.

The company said that in November 2022, JWPL entered into an amended Limited Partnership Agreement with Titan LP to increase the latter’s fund size to SGD250,000,000, after which additional investors also joined the private equity fund with a 10% participating interest in Titan LP.

With the said agreement, JWPL’s total commitment increased to SGD225,000,000, representing 90% of the increased fund size and total commitments.

JFC said its joint venture with Titan now has 11 restaurants in China, mostly in Shanghai.

The company said it plans to aggressively expand Tim Ho Wan in mainland China with a target of reaching 100 restaurant outlets within the next four years.

Tim Ho Wan operates a total of 67 outlets in Asia, mostly franchised stores with the largest concentration in China with 32 stores, followed by Singapore with 13 stores, and Philippines with seven.—AOL, GMA News