Highlands Coffee—which counts Philippine tycoon Tony Tan Caktiong’s Jollibee Foods as its biggest shareholder—is mulling an IPO in Vietnam to bankroll the company’s expansion plans.

The board of the Ho Chi Minh-based coffee chain is evaluating the possible maiden share sale with the goal of listing the company by the first quarter of 2027, Jollibee said in a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange. It didn’t disclose the size of the proposed IPO but Bloomberg previously reported Highlands Coffee is targeting to raise as much as $400 million.

“Highlands Coffee stands out as one of the most attractive growth and value creation stories within the company’s portfolio, reflecting both strategic M&A success and post-acquisition organic expansion,” Manila-based Jollibee said in the statement. “The proposed IPO is intended to support Highlands Coffee’s next phase of growth.”Highlands Coffee had 56 outlets when Jollibee first invested in the company in 2012. Jollibee, which holds a 60% stake in Highlands Coffee, has since turned the company into the leading coffee chain in Vietnam with 1,000 stores today. Listing Highland Coffee will allow it to tap Vietnam’s equity market, which has among the fastest‑growing retail investor participation in Southeast Asia, according to Jollibee. Vietnam projects 11 million retail stockbroking accounts by 2030, from an estimated nine million last year, it added.“The proposed IPO creates a platform for exponential shareholders' value creation in a very dynamic capital market,” said Jollibee, which Tony Tan Caktiong built from an ice cream parlor he started in 1975 into the Philippines’ biggest burger and fried chicken chain.The proposed listing of Highlands Coffee comes as Jollibee is looking into separately listing its international businesses in the U.S. by next year. Jollibee’s overseas operation accounted for about 43 per cent of its 224.2 billion peso revenue ($3.8 billion) in the first nine months of 2025.

Leveraging its namesake burger and fried chicken chain, Jollibee has amassed a portfolio of over 20 local and foreign restaurant brands through acquisitions in recent years such as Denver-based Smashburger, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Chinese dimsum chain Tim Ho Wan and South Korea’s Compose Coffee.

With a net worth of $2.9 billion, Tan Caktiong and his family are among the wealthiest in the Philippine. He is in charge of the group’s strategic and long-term direction, while his younger brother, Ernesto Tanmantiong, is the president and CEO of Jollibee.

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