BIZ BUZZ: Happy birthday, Injap

DoubleDragon Corp. CEO and cochair Edgar “Injap” Sia II turned 49 on Jan. 9, and the day was made more special by the 10-percent jump in the share price of Hotel101 Global Holdings Corp. or HBNB on the tech-heavy Nasdaq exchange in New York to a record high of $8.80.

This was the biggest single-day jump in the share price of the DoubleDragon subsidiary, giving it a market valuation of $2.06 billion or P122 billion, close to three times the value of just $700 million when it listed last July 1, the first Filipino company to do so.

HBNB still has a long way to go before catching up with AirBNB, its inspiration and hospitality sector disruptor that is valued at $85.7 billion.

Nevertheless, the team behind HBNB and the birthday boy himself are riding high on the positive momentum, especially as they believe that 2026 will be a “breakthrough year” for the homegrown company.

Starting this March, for example, the company will start generating recurring foreign exchange revenue from the opening of the 680-room Hotel101 in Madrid, Spain, followed by the 482-room Hotel101 in Niseko, Japan, in December.

On the home front, Hotel101 in Davao and Hotel101 in Cebu will also open this year.

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The total of 2,200 new and current Hotel101 rooms this year will redound to robust recurring revenues for the company founded by tycoons Tony Tan Caktiong, founder of the Jollibee Group, and Sia.

If all plans pan out, then there is every reason to expect that his golden year next year will be even more special.