26 SEP 2026 — Jollibee has sold 11 per cent of Highlands Coffee and given up control of the Vietnamese chain it has part-owned since 2011. The buyer is Viet Thai International, Jollibee's own joint-venture partner and the company founded by David Thai, who started Highlands.
The price is VND2,300bn, about US$88m, which values the whole business at roughly US$800m.
What changed hands
JSF Investments Pte. Ltd., a Jollibee subsidiary, agreed to sell 11 per cent of CTCP SF Vung Tau, the company that operates Highlands Coffee, to CTCP Viet Thai International.
Mekong ASEAN reports that the sale takes Jollibee from 60 per cent to 49 per cent and Viet Thai International from 40 per cent to 51 per cent.
That 11 per cent is the difference between majority and minority. Jollibee remains by far the largest outside shareholder but no longer controls the company.
The founder takes majority control
Viet Thai International is not a new arrival. It is the founding shareholder of the chain and has been Jollibee's joint-venture partner in Vietnam since 2011.
David Thai founded both Viet Thai International and Highlands Coffee, and is chief executive of the chain. The transaction returns majority ownership to the founder's own company. The Vietnamese press framed it as a buy-back rather than a sale to a stranger.
What the chain is worth
The implied value of the whole business is about US$800m. Highlands Coffee had 1,062 outlets at the end of June, company-operated and franchised, in Vietnam and abroad.
It is a material part of its parent. VnExpress reports second-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of more than PHP1bn, up more than 70 per cent on a year earlier, and a contribution of more than 8.6 per cent of group profits.
The listing behind the sale
An initial public offering is planned. DealStreetAsia reports a listing on a Vietnamese exchange that could raise US$300m to US$400m, with UBS and Jefferies among the advisers, targeted for the first quarter of 2027.
Mekong ASEAN gives Jollibee's reasoning plainly. The business has reached a size at which it can attract outside capital, so Jollibee is optimising its ownership share now. Selling down before a listing, rather than after it, settles who controls the company before public shareholders arrive.
It is the second Southeast Asian coffee chain to move towards a listing this year. In August Malaysia's ZUS Coffee was working with advisers on a raise of at least RM1bn at a valuation near RM4bn, having passed Starbucks to become the country's largest chain. The two are close in scale and about a year apart in timing.
What Jollibee keeps and gives up
Jollibee keeps 49 per cent of a business it values at US$800m, plus the proceeds. It gives up the ability to decide the company's direction on its own.
The stated use of the money is to reduce debt, reinvest in other growth businesses and return value to shareholders. None of those is specific, and no figure has been attached to any of them.
The transaction settles the question a listing would otherwise have raised. Highlands Coffee will go to market as a Vietnamese-controlled company, with its founder holding the majority and a Philippine restaurant group as the large minority shareholder.
