Market cheers Hotel101 Nasdaq debut this month
Hotel101 Global Holdings Corp., the condotel business of DoubleDragon Corp., will be traded this month in the Nasdaq Stock Exchange alongside several global tech giants, including Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc.
This, after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Hotel101 Global’s registration statement covering the shares it will list on Nasdaq.
Investors cheered this development, as Hotel101 Global was now closer to becoming the first Filipino-owned company to make its Nasdaq debut.
DoubleDragon, which is listed on the local bourse, saw its share price soar by 9.06 percent to P11.08 each on Tuesday afternoon.
The homegrown business of tycoon Edgar “Injap” Sia II is slated to have an equity value of $2.3 billion at $10 per share, Hotel101 Global said in a statement on Monday night.
Hotel101 Global, which is already present in Spain and Japan, first got its ticket to Nasdaq after announcing its merger with JVSPAC Acquisition Corp. The US SEC also approved this deal.
“The closing of the business combination is expected to occur as soon as possible, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals and other customary closing conditions,” Hotel101 Global said in its statement.
With the US SEC’s approval, the company is set to be listed and traded on Nasdaq within the month under the ticker “HBNB.”
A global listing allows Hotel101 to tap additional capital for its long-term plan of having 1 million rooms across 100 countries, with 25 countries already identified.
Just last week, Hotel101 Global said it would soon make its P137.5-billion debut in Saudi Arabia following its partnership with investment firm Horizon Group.
Under their deal, 10,000 Hotel101 rooms will be built across five locations in Saudi Arabia: Medina, Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha and Alula.
In the first quarter, gains from the overseas projects of Hotel101 helped DoubleDragon balloon its earnings by 245 percent to P2.05 billion. Its top line also more than doubled to P4.45 billion, owing to a 69-percent surge in unit sales to P417.4 million at Hotel101.
