DOUBLEDRAGON Properties Corp. and Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) are planning to create the country’s “first and largest” industrial real estate investment trust (REIT), which will be registered by 2022.

The REIT listing will be done via DoubleDragon’s industrial leasing unit, CentralHub Industrial Centers, Inc. Its portfolio includes industrial warehouse complexes for warehousing, commissary, cold storage facilities, and logistics distribution center.

“We are excited to work together with Jollibee in developing CentralHub into the largest landlord of industrial warehouses in the country. We see CentralHub become a major recurring income contributor to DoubleDragon,” DoubleDragon Chairman Edgar “Injap” J. Sia II said in a statement on Thursday.

In a separate disclosure, JFC said its board of directors approved of the plan to invest land properties worth around P2 billion and P1.9 billion in cash in CentralHub.

“JFC’s plan is to reduce assets tied to real estate properties by converting some of them into securities in REIT and by selling others directly to third parties,” JFC Chairman and Founder Tony Tan Caktiong said.

The JFC board approved the cash subscription to 1,564,410,000 common shares of CentralHub. Jollibee will also infuse 16.4 hectares of its industrial properties to CentralHub’s portfolio in exchange for additional common shares of CentralHub.

Additional commissary assets from JFC will bump up CentralHub’s total industrial land portfolio to 39.8 hectares. The assets for infusion will be valued by an independent appraisal company.

DoubleDragon, CentralHub, and JFC have signed a P3.97-billion binding agreement for the transaction.

“We will use the proceeds from the eventual IPO of CentralHub to finance real estate investments for our new stores and commissaries which we will convert again into more investments and shares in the REIT,” Mr. Tan Caktiong said.

Completion of the transaction is still subject to regulatory approvals. JFC is amending its articles of incorporation “to clearly and expressly set forth its authority to invest in, acquire, own and use real and personal properties, of every kind and description when such investments are done pursuant to the business objectives of the company.

Meanwhile, the exact dates for CentralHub’s REIT application and offer are still dependent on the agreement of JFC and DoubleDragon, as well as approval from regulatory bodies, among others.

Shares of DoubleDragon Properties at the stock market closed unchanged on Thursday at P12.10 each, while JFC stocks went down by P2.20 or 1.04% to finish at P210.20 each. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

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