Villar Group plans 2 IPOs in Q4

*_{Villar Group Chairman Manuel B. Villar Jr.}*

The Villar Group of Companies is planning two initial public offerings towards the fourth quarter of the year—Vista Land and Lifescapes’ real estate investment trust (VREIT) and supermarket chain owner AllDay Mart Inc.

In a press interview, Villar Group Founder and Chairman Manuel B. Villar Jr. said the corporate vehicle for their AllDay supermarket chain is eyeing an IPO sometime in October to raise about P5 billion to P6 billion.

“It will be a pure supermarket retail play,” said Villar adding that this will not include the AllDay chain of convenience stores. Both chains are owned by the Villar family through All Value Holdings Corporation.

All Day Supermarket facade

He said the IPO will be equivalent to about a 30 percent stake in AllDay Mart which currently has 35 to 40 supermarket branches and is expanding rapidly together with sister company AllHome Corporation.

Villar said the shares to be offered will be primary shares with the proceeds going to the company to fund its expansion program.

All Day Supermarket self checkout

The group is planning to further expand its neighborhood mall concept where there will be a branch each of AllHome, AllDay, Coffee project and some restaurants—all of which will be owned by All Value.

“This is the trend we are seeing. Consumers will be less drawn to big malls in favor of places where they can just park, shop for necessities, and eat,” Villar said.

Meanwhile, Villar said they are still hammering out the details of Vista Land’s REIT which they are currently calling VREIT although the intention is for it to be a purely office portfolio.

“We do not intend to include our malls and other properties although we are open to it if that will be the advise of our finance managers,” he noted.

Villar said proceeds of the REIT will be used mainly for the construction of more leasing properties, including the neighborhood mall concept.

He said AllDay Supermarket’s sales doubled last year due to the change in consumer behavior during the lockdown amid the pandemic and has not gone down from this level even now when lockdown measures have been eased.

“Sales continue to grow although not has fast as last year. People of have tried out AllDay supermarkets have enjoyed their experience and have become our regular customers. So we have retained the larger revenues,” Villar said.

He added that their e-commerce platforms have also seen strong growth during the pandemic and not account for about 5 to 10 percent of sales.

Article and Photo originally posted by Manila Bulletin last June 24, 2021 3:29pm and written by James A. Loyola.