Jollibee’s mascot and Tim Ho Wan dishes are shown in this composite photo. PHOTO

Jollibee Foods Corp on Wednesday, said it would buy shares of its partners in the fund that owns the Tim Ho Wan brand.

Subsidiary Jollibee Worldwide Pte Ltd, which owns 85 percent participating interest in the fund, will pay SGD 71.56 million (P2.6 billion) to acquire the remaining 15 percent interests of other investors in Titan Dining LP, JFC told the stock exchange.

Titan Dining LP is the private equity fund that owns the Tim Ho Wan brand and company-owned stores, it added.

In May 2018, the JFC invested SGD 45 million to acquire 45 percent participating interest in Titan Dining. It has since gradually increased its investments and participating interest.

JFC and Titan Dining established a joint venture in September 2020 and opened a Tim Ho Wan restaurant in Shanghai.

The company said it plans to “aggressively expand” Tim Ho Wan in mainland China with at least 100 outlets within the next 4 years.

“JFC aims to build as an important part of its portfolio a significant business serving Chinese cuisine in different parts of the world,” the company said.

Tim Ho Wan currently has 53 outlets in Asia.

JFC said it has several brands serving Chinese cuisine namely Chowking, Yonghe King, PRC, Hong Zhuang Yuan, Panda Express and Tim Ho Wan.

The home-grown Chickenjoy maker’s ultimate goal is to be among the world’s top 5 restaurant operators.

Dubbed as one of Asia’s largest food service companies, JFC operates 5,816 stores in 33 countries.