Philippines' DoubleDragon subsidiary Hotel101 Global to list in US (updated)

JVSPAC Acquisition

08/04/2024 05:53

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      Hotel101 to be first Philippine company to list in U.S.
    

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      Listing to be achieved through a SPAC merger
    

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      Hotel101 to have equity value of over $2.3 bln
    

  
 (Adds comments from DoubleDragon chairman and Hotel101 CEO
comment in paragraphs 10 to 12)
    By Yantoultra Ngui and Neil Jerome Morales
       SINGAPORE/MANILA, April 8 (Reuters) - Philippine real
estate firm DoubleDragon  DD.PS  on Monday said subsidiary
Hotel101 Global will list on the Nasdaq in the United States via
a merger with special purpose acquisition company JVSPAC
Acquisition Corp  JVSA.O .
    Hotel101 Global will become the first Philippine company to
list in the U.S. following the deal with the SPAC - a publicly
listed shell that raises funds to merge with a private entity.
    The merger is likely to result in Hotel101 having an equity
value of over $2.3 billion, DoubleDragon, Hotel101 and JVSPAC
said in a joint statement. It will close in the second half of
the year with Hotel101 listing under ticker "HBNB". 
    "We believe that a NASDAQ listing will provide Hotel101 with
access to public capital markets and help accelerate our global
expansion plans," Hotel101 CEO Hannah Yulo-Luccini said in the
statement.
    Hotel101 is the hotel arm of Philippines-listed
DoubleDragon, formed by tycoon Edgar "Injap" Sia II with
Jollibee Foods  JFC.PS  owner Tony Tan Caktiong.
    It builds and operates hotels with standardized, 21 square
metre rooms that it sells individually to investors.
    Hotel101's asset-light business model generates revenue
first from room sales and then from the recurring income from
day-to-day hotel operations, Yulo-Luccini said.
    It is headquartered in Singapore and operates two hotels in
the Philippines, with three under development in Japan, Spain
and the U.S.
    The firm aims to expand to 25 countries including China and
Saudi Arabia by 2026, and derive 95% of revenue from overseas.
    "It is a big lift forward to where we want the company to go
with our big plans and dreams for Hotel 101 to be hopefully at
one point eventually to be in 100 countries globally. This
milestone today is a big jump forward," Sia, who is
DoubleDragon's chairman and CEO, told Reuters on Monday.
        Hotel101's long term vision is to have one million
rooms, up from the 2,286 rooms it now has and is developing, and
operate in over 100 countries worldwide, he said, adding that
DoubleDragon will continue to be a major shareholder in Hotel
101 after the listing.
        A little less than 5% of Hotel101 will be floated, and
the company will seek to bring in institutional or private
investors through further public offerings, Yulo-Luccini said.
    JVSPAC is led by Albert Wong, CEO of luxury products
distributor Kingsway Group - the sole distributor of Lamborghini
cars in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou, the statement showed.
    The SPAC, which targets lifestyle and tech businesses, in
January announced it raised $57.5 million.
    The merger will see Hotel101 join a growing number of
Southeast Asian firms to list in the U.S., filling a void left
by Chinese companies that have paused such listings amid
Sino-U.S. tension.
    Vietnamese EV maker VinFast  VFS.O  listed in the U.S. in
August via a merger with SPAC Black Spade Acquisition. It now
commands a market value of some $10 billion, LSEG data showed.
    In February, the parent of Malaysian budget airline AirAsia,
Capital A  CAPI.KL , finalised a deal to list its brand
management unit on the Nasdaq with SPAC Aetherium Acquisition
 GMFI.O . That deal gave the unit, Capital A International, an
enterprise value of $1.15 billion.

 (Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore and Neil Jerome
Morales in Manila; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Sonali
Paul)
 ((Yantoultra.Ngui@thomsonreuters.com;))