5 days Ago
DoubleDragon Corp., the joint venture of billionaires Edgar “Injap” Sia II and Tony Tan Caktiong, is set to acquire 35% of listed wholesale and retail MerryMart Consumer Corp. for P1.
28 billion. In a regulatory filing, DoubleDragon said it will acquire 2,658,227,848 common shares of MerryMart based on the 30-day volume-weighted average price of P0.48 per share as approved by its board of directors on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
The transaction will be paid 50% through DoubleDragon shares as payment at P9.30 per share and 50% in cash worth P637.97 million.
The company said the acquisition is in line with the company’s goal to reach P500 billion in revenues by 2035. With the transaction, DoubleDragon is required to hold a mandatory tender offer of the shares in MerryMart held by its remaining shareholders of the total issued and outstanding capital stock at the same valuation, subject to regulatory approvals. MerryMart, chaired by Sia, generates over P7 billion in recurring revenues through the operation of three brick and mortar retail formats and an online wholesale format — its full-size supermarket MerryMart Grocery; small-format household essential store, mini-grocery, and pharmacy MerryMart Express; and wholesale platform MerryMart Wholesale.
MerryMart currently has 135 branches nationwide, with its pharmacy subsidiaries major players in Quezon-Luzon and Zamboanga-Mindanao, and operating a “significant market share” in the Capiz Province. “DoubleDragon is now in an excellent position where it can capitalize on its strong balance sheet to add worthwhile investments outside of the property sector that would have massive growth potential. I am personally excited for what the future holds for the new DoubleDragon,” DoubleDragon co-chairman Caktiong said.
“As out world pivots to a new economy, my partner and mentor Dr. Tony Tan Caktiong and myself view this as the right time for DoubleDragon to prepare itself for extraordinary opportunities that will present itself along the way as we navigate out of this global pandemic towards the next economic boom cycle,” DoubleDragon chairman Sia said. DoubleDragon in February said it aims to raise P51.
3 billion in fresh equity capital this year, marking the largest capital boost in its history, fueled partly by the upcoming Nasdaq listing of its Singapore-based subsidiary Hotel101 Global Pte. Ltd. “DoubleDragon expects that 2025 will be the most significant year since the DoubleDragon joint venture between Edgar ‘Injap’ Sia II and Tony Tan Caktiong came to life 13 years ago in 2012,” the company said then.
Hotel101 officially filed its F-4 Registration Statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on February 1 (Philippine time), taking a key step toward its $2.3-billion Nasdaq listing. The firm entered a definitive merger agreement with JVSPAC Acquisition Corp.
in April 2024, positioning DoubleDragon to become the first Filipino company with a subsidiary listed on Nasdaq. JVSPAC, listed on Nasdaq, is a blank-check company led by Chairman and CEO Albert Wong, who also heads Kingsway Group Holdings, the sole distributor of Lamborghini in Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou. DoubleDragon operates across four main business segments: retail leasing, office leasing, industrial leasing, and hospitality.
—VAL, GMA Integrated News.
