A Nasdaq Listing

If you're wondering why tycoon Injap Sia II's Hotel101 Global Holdings Corp. is all over the news recently, it's because the company made history by being the first Filipino-owned company to list on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

- IRIS GONZALES

And there it was indeed on the front page of The STAR, a front-page photo of Sia and DoubleDragon co-chair Tony Tan Caktiong and their team posing in that famed spot in Times Square in New York with Nasdaq's giant flashing billboard behind them—announcing the listing.

There they were, a sea of green, as they all donned Hotel101's trademark green jackets while holding the Philippine flag.

The shares began trading on July 1 (New York time). With a deemed equity value at closing of $2.3 billion, Hotel101 is the first Filipino-owned company to be listed and traded on the Nasdaq. Hotel101 is a subsidiary of DoubleDragon, the company founded by Sia after Jollibee acquired his brainchild, Mang Inasal.

It is a bold and ambitious move, indeed, and as Sia said, a reflection of the strength of the company's vision to redefine the industry and become a leading global hospitality brand with an inventory of one million Hotel101 rooms globally.

Hotel101 hotels are no-frills hotels which started in the Philippines and are now expanding in Japan, Spain, the US, and in Saudi Arabia.

The next challenge

The next challenge for Sia and his team is to put their plans in place and keep investors interested.

Actually, US-based investment fund manager Eric Jurado said that ahead of the listing, smart money already moved quietly into Nasdaq-listed JVSPAC Corp., a blank-check company incorporated for mergers or similar business combinations. Hotel101 Global and JVSPAC have partnered to pave the way for the US listing.