By Arra B. Francia
Senior Reporter
BUSINESSMAN Antonio L. Tiu is upbeat on bringing his fruit kiosk business The Big Chill, Inc. (TBCI) public in 2019, after years of postponing the initial public offering (IPO) due to poor market conditions.
TBCI’s plans to conduct an IPO surfaced as early as 2013, as the company looked to finance its expansion to China.
“Tapos na ang financial statement (We’re done with the financial statement). We’re just waiting for the right timing kung kelan pwedeng i-announce ’yung (on when we can announce the) infusion of Tully’s Coffee Asia Pacific into Big Chill,” Mr. Tiu, who sits as chairman and chief executive officer of TBCI, told reporters last week.
Mr. Tiu acquired the licensing agreement for Tully’s Coffee back in 2011, but its parent Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. was involved in a string of legal issues over the previous years.
Once Tully’s Coffee Asia Pacific is folded into TBCI, Mr. Tiu said the firm’s market capitalization could double from its current size of P2.5 billion.
TBCI currently operates about 70 The Big Chill stores, with 20 more seen to open in the next two months.
“We’ll probably breach 100 stores in the next two months,” Mr. Tiu said.
All of the existing stores are located in Metro Manila. Mr. Tiu noted that they are already in talks for a regional franchisee to facilitate their expansion outside the metro.
Half of the operating stores are franchised. Franchising a store costs about P500,000 to P900,000, depending on its size.
Incorporated in 1994, TBCI’s target market includes women aged 18 to 36 years old in the AB and upper C market segments. It offers blended shakes with 100% fresh-cut fruit.
AGRINURTURE PARTNER
TBCI is a subsidiary of listed firm Agrinurture, Inc. In the same press chat, Mr. Tiu explained that Agrinurture will be engaging an Asian partner for a new microfinance program that could boost farmers’ productivity.
Agrinurture’s foreign partner is set to infuse an initial $100 million (or about P5 billion) into the company, which will be used as the initial seed money for ANI’s proposed Agri Token ecosystem.
Farmers can use these tokens to buy products needed for their crops from accredited merchants. This can be a substitute to lending farmers cash, which can otherwise be used for non-farming purposes.
“With the token system, you can buy from accredited merchants. You can buy for example hybrid seeds and fertilizers you need to produce high-quality rice,” Mr. Tiu said.
Mr. Tiu said they have yet to sign a deal with investors, as they are still negotiating whether the investment will be through convertible bonds or through equity ownership.
“My preference is through convertible bond. But if they insist on equity, we’ll be forced to do a follow-on offering, because otherwise we’ll breach the foreign ownership limit. Right now 20% already is owned by foreign,” the businessman explained.
ANI targets to launch Agri Tokens within the next two months. The company will start issuing tokens for rice and banana for Luzon and Mindanao in the first stage of implementation, and could include other high-value crop in other areas should the program succeed.
