Jollibee Foods Corp. said it completed a P12-billion fund raising program amid a strong demand from investors.
Jollibee chief executive Ernesto Tanmantiong said during the listing ceremony of 8 million preferred shares the offering was oversubscribed by more than 3.1 times.
“Today, we list our first ever preferred shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange with the even stronger conviction that the future of Jollibee Group of Companies will even be brighter,” Tanmantiong said.
Jolibee will use the net proceeds from the offering to buy back up to $250 million in senior perpetual securities from the $600-million notes issued in January 2020.
Jollibee said once the buyback was completed, it would have fewer debt, more distributed financial maturities over the next few years, lower foreign exchange risks and better leverage and debt servicing ratios.
The balance of the proceeds will be used to finance an aggressive rollout of stores here and abroad.
The fast-food giant plans to open 450 stores across various restaurant brands. It allocated P12.2 billion in capital expenditures to fund the store network expansion.
The company was operating 17 brands across 33 countries as of end-June. It had a total store network of 5,816 outlets, including 3,192 in the Philippines and 2,624 abroad.
PSE chairman Jose Pardo said the success of Jollibee’s preferred share offering reflected the confidence of investors on the company’s leadership and management’s strategic initiative.
“The food is among industries severely impacted by headwinds caused by these pandemic. Jollibee’s brands were not spared by the temporary closure of stores during the lockdown which eventually led to the permanent closure of some of the branches,” Pardo said.
Pardo said while full recovery might take some time, these adversities provided the company an opportunity to revisit and recalibrate its strategy.
The share price of Jollibee climbed 6.4 percent Thursday to P229.80.