You can find original article here Nrn.
Subscribe to our free daily Nrn newsletters
Pizza Hut is being sold to both LongRange Capital and Yum China in two separate deals for $2.7 billion, parent company Yum Brands said on Tuesday. “These transactions enable Yum to be a more focused company that continues to leverage scale, technology and talent to accelerate our raising the B.A.R. priorities and deliver sustained value for our stakeholders,” Yum CEO Chris Turner said in a statement this morning. “Under LongRange and Yum China, Pizza Hut will be well-positioned for future growth with ownership that brings deep expertise in the restaurant industry.” LongRange was founded in 2019 and has five major investments: The synthetic diamond company US Synthetic, the casket maker Batesville, convenience food company Bakkavor, ski resort company Alpin Unlimited and the fitness chain 24 Hour Fitness. The firm has about $1.7 billion in capital under management and says that it takes a longer-term approach to investing, focusing on operational and strategic improvements to generate a return, rather than financial engineering. Yum Brands spun off its China division in 2016.
Yum launched a formal strategic review of the Pizza Hut chain in November, in which parent company Yum Brands disclosed it was considering a possible sale or other divestiture options as the business continued to face ongoing sales and market share declines in its core U.S. market. At that time, Yum Brands said the intent of the process is for Pizza Hut to reach its “full potential for the benefit of its franchisees, consumers, and employees and to maximize value for Yum” shareholders. Yum recently entered exclusive talks with LongRange Capital, which beat out offers from Sycamore, according to a recent Bloomberg report.