Japanese Restaurant Billionaire Takaya Awata’s Toridoll Plans To Take Noodle Chain Tam Jai Private

Toridoll Holdings, the Japanese restaurant giant controlled by billionaire Takaya Awata, has proposed to take its Hong Kong noodle chain Tam Jai International private for at least HK$548 million ($70.4 million) amid the city’s retail headwinds.

Tam Jai said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange late Monday that its Japanese parent company is offering HK$1.58 apiece in cash to acquire roughly 26% of the shares held by outside investors. The offer represents a premium of about 75.6% over Tam Jai’s closing price of HK$0.9 on February 3, the day before its shares were suspended, the Hong Kong-based company said.

Tam Jai’s shares soared 63% during the Tuesday morning session after they resumed trading. The surge brought the premium down to only 7.5% over its price of HK$1.47 as of Tuesday noon. Toridoll owns about 74% of Tam Jai’s outstanding shares.

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Tam Jai’s privatization will “provide better flexibility, knowhow, relevant resources and expertise, in realising the company’s long-term strategic goals effectively and efficiently,” according to the filing. Its growth strategies include continuing its overseas expansion, Tam Jai said.

Toridoll, which operates Marugame Seimen, Japan’s largest udon noodle chain by sales, has a network of more than 2,000 eateries across 29 countries and regions as of February. The Tokyo-based company acquired Tam Jai, Hong Kong’s popular chain for Chinese-style rice noodles, for $243 million in 2018 and took it public in a $143 million initial public offering in 2021. Since the acquisition, Tam Jai has expanded into Singapore, mainland China, Japan and Australia. As of January, Tam Jai International runs 233 shops under its flagship Tamjai Yunnan Mixian and Tamjai Samgor Mixian brands, and 13 under brands such as Marugame Seimen.

Tam Jai has been facing pressure from the outflow of Hong Kong residents to neighbouring mainland cities for cheaper food and services. In the six months ended September, Tam Jai’s net profit plunged 56% year-over-year to HK$36 million. Its shares have plummeted 56% from its IPO price as of Tuesday noon.

Tai Jai is one of the two biggest overseas revenue drivers for Toridoll, Awata, the Japanese restaurant operator’s founder and CEO, said in an interview with Forbes Asia last year. The Hong Kong noodle chain has recently partnered with Hextar Retail Berhad, part of Malaysian tycoon Ong Soon Ho’s conglomerate Hextar Group, to expand into the Southeast Asian country.

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