SINGAPORE, Oct. 6 – Malaysia’s Loob Holding, which owns Southeast Asia’s largest bubble tea brand by store, will consider plans for a stock listing once it achieves its goal of operating 1,000 Tealive stores in the country by 2024, said her top manager.
“By then, we may consider an IPO if the timing and pricing are attractive,” Loob chief executive officer Bryan Loo said in an interview with Reuters.
Loob, which opened its 800th Tealive store in Malaysia last month, had previously planned a Malaysian IPO but put it on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, according to a media report.
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In June last year, Loob received funding from Malaysian private equity fund Creador, which bought a 30 percent stake in it, but the companies did not disclose financial details.
“With Creador on board, our funding options have actually expanded a lot,” Loo said, adding that Loob is “well funded” for its currently planned expansion.
“So the question of whether we’re looking to go public and if so, in which market is best revisited in a year,” said Loo, who founded Loob in 2010 and launched Tealive in 2017.
Tealive makes and sells beverages from pearl milk tea to coffee and has expanded into countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia and the United Kingdom.
The expansion comes as Malaysia’s economy grew at its fastest annual growth in a year in the second quarter and consumer spending picked up sharply following the easing of coronavirus restrictions. Other milk tea brands such as CHAGEE and KOI have also expanded rapidly in the Southeast Asian country.
Loob is also preparing to double the number of Tealive stores in the Philippines annually, with a current goal of 25 stores from 300 by 2024, Loo said.
In addition to Tealive, Loob also owns soda maker Sodaxpress, kombucha brand Wonderbrew, and coffee brand Bask Bear Coffee. Loob is expanding by 100 Tealive and 100 Bask Bear Coffee locations in Malaysia each year, according to Loo.
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Reporting by Yantultra Ngui; Edited by Anshuman Daga and Kim Coghill
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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