FLAVORED French fries retailer Potato Corner is looking for an underwriter that will help the company prepare for its plan to raise funds via the equities market next year to support its planned aggressive expansion program.

“We are starting the process for the initial public offering (IPO). Hopefully we will be able to do it by the third quarter of next year if the market conditions are right,” Jose Magsaysay Jr., CEO of Potato Corner, told the BusinessMirror.

Magsaysay said the details for the IPO, including the number of shares it will offer and share value, will be finalized once it has selected the company underwriter.

Potato Corner currently has 250 outlets in the country and 27 outside the Philippines. It is present in the US, Indonesia, Malaysia and Panama.

The company, Magsaysay said, plans to add 27 more stores abroad and 40 outlets in the country, 40 percent of these are company-owned.

In the US, the franchise fee for Potato Corner is $25,000, while in the Philippines, the cost is P250,000 for mall locations and P150,000 for school sites. The average return-on-investment is 18 months, Magsaysay said.

Magsaysay added that Potato Corner have affordable schemes for franchisees. It has a 12-months-to-pay program through credit cards and a revenue-sharing scheme with interested partners with no startup capital. They only need to negotiate a good location and the company will pay the rent and operate the store. The partners will have a 30-percent share in the net income.

The market for Potato Corner, Magsaysay said is B to C economic classes, although most of the customers are children and young people.

For the planned IPO, Magsaysay said they want their youthful customers to become shareholders of the company by encouraging the parents to buy the shares and give them as gifts for their children.