Jollibee Foods Corp. is venturing into the beverage business with the acquisition of a 51-percent stake in a company that owns bubble-tea chain Milksha.
Jollibee said in a disclosure to the stock exchange wholly-owned subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd. would purchase the majority ownership in Milkshop International Co. Ltd. for $12.8 million (P646 million).
“This gives JFC the opportunity to participate in this fast-growing beverage category and together with Milkshop’s founder, grow the Milksha brand globally,” Jollibee said.
One of the co-founders of Milkshop will continue to retain the 49-percent ownership of the company.
The completion of the transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, and the final purchase price will be confirmed after closing. Founded in Taiwan in 2008, Milkshop has been benefitting from increasing popularity of bubble tea across various markets.
It has over 250 outlets, with 231 outlets in Taiwan, four in Hong Kong, two in Melbourne, two in Vancouver and 12 in Singapore.
Despite the pandemic, Milkshop generated system-wide sales of $74.7 million in 2020, up 12.3 percent from $66.5 million in the previous year.
Milkshop is also generating modest net income and positive earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation.
Jollibee announced in June that it would bring Milksha to the Philippines via a licensing agreement.
Milksha products will soon be sold at Chowking stores.
Jollibee is one of Asia’s largest food service companies with a worldwide network of 5,853 stores with 17 brands operating in 34 countries.
It was operating 3,202 restaurant outlets in the country and 2,651 stores overseas as of end-September.
