Jollibee (JFC) Business Transformation - from Restaurant to what?, holders should brace for more pain
Jollibee peaked at 328.40 sometime in January of 2019. Before that, JFC acquired 100% of Smashburger an American fast-casual hamburger restaurant chain a for a total of around US$210 Million (around 11 Billion Pesos). JFC was then hunting for acquisitions in its bid to become a top 5 restaurant companies in the world. It appears that JFC felt that its growth in Philippine market where it is the dominant player has started to stall and it has to sustain its growth by acquisition. Smashburger was a loss maker. It was not profitable when JFC acquired the American hamburger chain. The losses of Smashburger were immediately felt in the results of JFC. The consolidation of the losses of Smashburger to the financial statements of JFC marked the start of the decline of JFC from its peak. The market was sending a message that JFC had it wrong. The message was like – acquiring a loss maker is not the way to grow. Then in September 2019, JFC acquired another loss maker Coffee Bean ...