U.S. investors will get a crack at another chicken chain in Jollibee

Jollibee operates high-volume, fast-food chicken restaurants. | Photo: Shutterstock.

We wondered earlier this week whether a company would go public this year and we quickly got our answer when Jollibee Foods Corp. announced plans to split into two and take one of the resulting companies public in the U.S.

In the process, it will give U.S. investors access to one of the world’s most notable growth chains. It will also give them a chance to invest in another chicken concept.

According to a filing earlier this week on the Philippine Stock Exchange, Jollibee Foods Corp. will spin off its non-Philippine business into a separate company. Jollibee shareholders will get shares of that new company, which would be publicly traded in the U.S.

It’s not a unique transaction. Yum Brands, the owner of KFC and Taco Bell, spun off its Chinese operations into Yum China, which is publicly traded in the U.S. So, too, is Kura Sushi USA, the U.S. operation of the Japanese sushi concept.

On the surface, this would be a difficult time for any company to go public in the U.S. Public investors have soured on restaurants, whose stocks badly underperformed the broader stock markets in 2025. Several companies saw their stock prices fall more than 40% last year. Those kinds of rewritten valuations have a tendency to sour investors on a sector.

But Jollibee has a few key advantages that may make this a good time for such an offering. The biggest: It serves chicken. 

Chicken chains such as Jollibee have been hot for the past several years as the restaurant industry catches up with consumers’ growing taste for poultry. Fast-casual chicken chain sales grew 24% in 2024, according to data from Technomic, the fastest-growing industry subsector. 

Fast-food chicken chain sales grew slower, at under 4%, but there’s no denying consumer taste for chicken. Just look at chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Taco Bell, each of which is falling all over itself to find more ways to get chicken onto their menus. 

And Jollibee brings another element to that: Growth. 

The chain has been thriving in the U.S. after years of stops and starts. 

System sales have grown 163% between 2019 and 2024, according to data from Technomic. The company boasts some of the industry’s best average unit volumes outside of companies like Raising Cane’s and Chick-fil-A. A typical Jollibee generated $4.4 million in sales in 2024, up 37% over the previous five years.

Outside of the U.S., it has grown just fine, averaging about 8% annually over that same period. The chain finished 2024 with 1,700 global locations, including 75 in the U.S.

Jollibee is now planning to franchise, believing that is key in its strategy to become a major player in the U.S. market, and just opened its first franchise location. 

The same can’t necessarily be said for Smashburger, which the company also owns. But investors will be clearly interested in that chicken chain and its combination of domestic growth and an international presence. 

U.S. investors have a few chicken chains to choose from in KFC, Popeyes, Wingstop and El Pollo Loco. Jollibee will give them one of the industry’s most interesting competitors.