Jollibee sells stake in Chinese restaurant chain

MANILA, Philippines – Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) will divest its stake in Guangxi San Pin Wang Food and Beverage Management Co. Ltd., a local restaurant chain in china.

The fastfood giant, through subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte. Ltd., is divesting its 55 percent interest in San Pin Wang in favor of its partner Guangxi Zong Kai Food Beverage Investment Co. for 90 million Chinese Yuan or $13 million.

JFC said the divestment would allow it to focus on building its Yong he King business, its largest business in China with 315 stores.

It was in 2012 when JFC acquired 55 percent of San Pin Wang from GZK.

San Pin Wang’s menu is centered on low-priced beef noodle.  Its stores are located mostly in Nanning in Guangxi province in the southern part of the People’s Republic of China.

At the time of JFC’s acquisition, San Pin Wang had 34 stores.

As of end-November 2016, San Pin Wang grew profitably to 71 stores and it plans to continue expanding in 2017 and in the years ahead.

On the same month, JFC acquired the 30 percent share of its partner in Happy Bee Foods Processing through an asset for equity swap to own 100 percent of the food processing plant, divest a business line that produces and sells food products for third-party institutions in China.

“This move is intended to focus on supporting Yonghe King by further improving food quality, strengthening food safety and accelerating product innovations. JFC’s divestment of its shareholdings in San Pin Wang is part of its intention to concentrate its resources on businesses with greater potential,” JFC said.

JFC operates the largest food service network in the Philippines, with 2,565 restaurant outlets in the country as of the end of October.

Of the 2,565 restaurants, 954 are Jollibee stores, 465 Chowking, 241 Greenwich, 385 Red Ribbon, 453 Mang lnasal and 67 Burger King.

Overseas, it had 671 stores:   Yonghe King China 316, Hong Zhuang Yuan 42, San Pin Wang  68, Dunkin’ Donuts (China) 8, Jollibee 157 (US 34, Vietnam 80, Brunei 14, Saudi Arabia 10, Qatar 4,Kuwait 4, Hong Kong 2, Singapore 4, Bahrain 1 and UAE 4), Red Ribbon in the US 33, Chowking 44 (US 16, UAE 19, Qatar 4, Oman 2, Kuwait 2 and Saudi Arabia 1), and Jinja Bar (US) 3.

In all, the JFC Group had a total of 3,236 stores worldwide.