Villar Group plans 3 IPOs this year
By James A. Loyola
The Villar Group of Companies currently has three initial public offerings in the pipeline: VistaREIT (VREIT), The Coffee Project, and small power utility Siquijor Island Power Corporation (SIPCor).
In an interview with media, Villar Group Founder and Chairman Manuel B. Villar Jr. said they hope to get regulatory approval for the P9.13 billion IPO of VREIT, a real estate investment trust sponsored by Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc.
VREIT is planning to offer up to 3.33 billion secondary common shares at a maximum offer price of up to P2.50 per offer share, with an overallotment option of up to 333.75 million secondary common shares.
The firm is set to be the flagship office and mall REIT of Vista Land, and aims to be among the leading diversified commercial REITs in the Philippines in terms of portfolio, profitability, growth, sustainability and dividend yield.
The company will have an initial portfolio of 10 community malls and two PEZA-registered office buildings with an aggregate gross leasable area (GLA) of 256,404 sqm.
Next in line will be Villar’s small power utilities group (SPUG) SIPCor which as two small power plants in Siquijor and Camotes islands in the Visayas with an existing capacity of 15 megawatts.
Following this will be the Villar Group’s coffee and restaurant businesses which will be consolidated into The Coffee Project prior to its planned IPO targeted for late this year.
Villar said they are targeting to have 200 The Coffee Project branches by the time of the IPO from the current figure of about 100 branches.
He noted though the not all the branches will be under The Coffee Project brand as there are new restaurant brands and concepts that will be added into The Coffee Project portfolio before the IPO.
“If you look at my restaurants, there are all new and have coffee-based concepts. For example my Bread Basket, it’s also like a coffee shop. Even my bar is like a coffee bar,” Villar said.
He noted that his coffee and restaurant businesses are very profitable and even have higher price points than Starbucks. Operating cost is also lower than casual dining restaurants since they do not have waiters and customers will have to order and pay at the counter.
Villar said The Coffee Project IPO should raise more than just P1 billion because “I would not be listing if I will raise only P1 billion.”