the Outsider - PSE Points to Ponder

  JFC’s market value has fallen 54 percent from its 2019 peak, foreign ownership restrictions have disappeared, and its founder’s 43.88 percent stake offers a potential route to control. But Hyper Dynamic’s steady buying suggests Tony Tan Caktiong sees an undervalued company, not one for sale. The unsolicited $5bn approach for the Lopez family’s Energy Development Corporation has delivered a reminder to Philippine investors: a depressed domestic valuation does not necessarily reflect what a strategic foreign buyer might pay for an irreplaceable asset. Indonesia’s Barito Renewables Energy has submitted an indicative, non-binding offer valuing EDC’s equity at approximately $5bn. Including debt, the transaction could value the geothermal producer at as much as $7bn, potentially making it one of the largest renewable-energy acquisitions in Asia and one of the biggest takeovers in Philippine history.  First Gen, the Lopez-controlled parent, has cautioned that there have been n...

  Jollibee Foods Corp.’s global expansion is doing exactly what investors once hoped it would do: make the Philippine fast-food giant less dependent on its home market and turn it into a broader international restaurant platform. But in the first quarter of 2026, that same overseas footprint exposed a harder truth — international scale is not yet translating into international earnings power. The company’s international business accounted for 42.4% of global revenues and 43.2% of gross profit in Q1 2026, showing that overseas operations are now a major part of JFC’s sales engine. Yet the same international segment contributed only 13.4% of global operating income and -52.0% of global net income after tax , or NIAT. In plain terms, JFC’s foreign operations are large and growing, but they still dragged down bottom-line profits during the quarter. The contrast is stark. JFC’s Philippine business contributed 86.6% of operating income and 152.0% of global NIAT , meaning the domestic...