of Jollibee Foods Corporation International (JFCI), will lead the company full-time once the separation is complete. His career spans William Grant & Sons, Ralph Lauren, Bacardi and Altria.  Jollibee Foods Corporation, the existing Manila-listed business, said the international arm is being built with a lean corporate structure focused on capital allocation, investment opportunities and portfolio priorities. Completion still requires approval from the Hong Kong exchange’s listing committee, and the company has been careful to say there is no assurance on final terms, timing or completion. Hong Kong over New York  “Since the announcement on January 6, 2026 to list our international business, we have been doing the detailed work required to establish two strong, independent companies,” said Chairman Tony Tan Caktiong.  “That work has reinforced our conviction in the listing and has led us to conclude that Hong Kong is the market best aligned with JFCI’s business, geographic footprint, and long-term ambitions.” Hong Kong is having its best primary market in years. HKEX chief executive Bonnie Chan told CNBC that more than 100 companies had listed during the year and proceeds had passed US$40 billion, already ahead of the roughly US$37 billion raised across the whole of 2025. The city has also been working hard on exactly the kind of issuer Jollibee represents.  Chan said in April that more than 150 Southeast Asian companies were listed in Hong Kong, having raised more than US$4.3 billion, and noted in August that around 10 foreign companies had applied to list. Vietnamese electric-taxi operator GSM and Thailand’s Minor Food have both been reported as weighing Hong Kong floats. Jollibee would be by far the largest and most closely watched test of that pitch. “Hong Kong offers the market depth and investor relevance to support JFCI’s long-term ambitions and is best positioned to recognise the value of its distinctive business profile and growth potential,” the company said last week. Why this is worth watching  Strip away the brand noise and the international business is a portfolio operator with a pronounced beverage tilt.  Wholly owned brands include Smashburger, Tim Ho Wan, Yonghe King and Hong Zhuang Yuan, alongside controlling stakes in The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf at 80 per cent, South Korea’s Compose Coffee at 70 per cent, Milksha at 51 per cent and SuperFoods Group, which runs Highlands Coffee, at 60 per cent. The scale is real. Jollibee Foods Corporation ended June with 10,767 stores across 33 countries under 19 brands, of which 7251 were outside the Philippines – close to seven in 10, on a network built out from a base that was overwhelmingly domestic two decades ago. What the Western footprint actually looks like At the end of June, the group had 340 stores in North America, down from 357 a year earlier, and 455 across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, up from 400. Of the North American total, the Jollibee brand itself accounted for 108 stores, of which 106 were company-owned and just two franchised. Jollibee has spent nearly three decades building North America store by store on its own balance sheet, and only launched a US franchising programme in March 2025. By July, it had signed seven multi-unit development groups, adding three in the first half. It outlined a path to 330 US franchise restaurants by 2030, according to its franchise development announcement. Meanwhile, the compounding is happening elsewhere. In the second quarter, system-wide sales at the international business rose 25.4 per cent and international same-store sales grew 4.4 per cent.  On the results call, management reported Vietnam system-wide sales up 47.6 per cent with same-store sales up 17.9 per cent, Compose Coffee opening 145 stores in the half at a run rate of about 30 a month, and Yonghe King at 537 stores in China and already 65 per cent franchised, heading for 70 per cent by year-end.  The Jollibee brand in the US posted 9.8 per cent same-store sales growth, its 66th consecutive month of gains. Smashburger grew same-store sales 7 per cent on 10.4 per cent traffic growth, but its store count fell from 203 to 180. Read together, that is an Asian growth engine with an American halo. Hong Kong is the venue that matches the store base, not the coverage. One question the listing does not yet answer is what JFCI will contain by the time it trades. In March, Jollibee Foods Corporation said Highlands Coffee’s board was evaluating an IPO in Vietnam, with a target listing by the first quarter of 2027. Bloomberg reported a potential raise of up to US$400 million. Highlands has gone from 56 outlets when Jollibee Foods Corporation invested in 2012 to about 1000 and the group has described it as one of the most attractive value-creation stories in the portfolio. What the listing is about This year, Jollibee’s brand value rose 2 per cent to US$3.3 billion, placing it 18th among the world’s 25 most valuable restaurant brands, according to brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance.   The group’s president and CEO Ernesto Tanmantiong aims to push the flagship brand further into the global top five. No Southeast Asian consumer group has got close to that tier. Getting there requires JFCI to become something it has not been so far: a franchised, capital-light platform that compounds returns, rather than an acquisitive operator that buys growth and then fixes it.  In reality, Compose and Yonghe King are franchising fast, Smashburger and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf are still being reshaped, and the Jollibee brand’s own US network remains almost entirely company-owned. Hong Kong may be the venue for that next phase. But the bigger test will be whether JFCI can deliver the kind of returns that justify Jollibee’s increasingly global ambitions. Further reading: How design studio Shed is reimagining Jollibee for the world stage.