Struggling Pizza Hut Restaurant Chain Will Be Sold For $2.7 Billion

The struggling Pizza Hut edifice concatenation will beryllium sold for $2.7 cardinal by genitor institution Yum Brands.

Yum Brands said successful February that it was considering trading Pizza Hut and nan concatenation looked to adjacent 250 U.S. restaurants. The pizza concatenation has struggled pinch outdated stores and increasing competition.

Pizza Hut was founded successful 1958 successful Wichita, Kansas. PepsiCo acquired nan concatenation successful 1977 but spun disconnected its edifice section — which became Yum Brands — successful 1997.

Private equity patient LongRange Capital is buying Pizza Hut, excluding nan mainland China business, for astir $1.5 billion, nan institution said Tuesday. The mainland China Pizza Hut will beryllium purchased by Yum China Holdings Inc. for astir $1.2 billion, it said.

“Under LongRange and Yum China, Pizza Hut will beryllium good positioned for early maturation pinch ownership that brings heavy expertise successful nan edifice industry,” Yum Brands CEO Chris Turner said successful a statement.

Yum Brands, whose different brands see KFC and Taco Bell, began a strategical reappraisal to research options for Pizza Hut successful November, pinch nan concatenation reporting declining income astatine comparable stores.

“Pizza Hut has agelong been nan anemic nexus successful Yum’s portfolio,” Neil Saunders, managing head of GlobalData, said successful a statement. “Despite efforts to revitalize nan marque and unopen underperforming locations, it has go progressively clear that pushing nan section backmost into maturation will require a level of finance and patience that Yum is conscionable not prepared to perpetrate to.”

By trading Pizza Hut, Yum Brands tin attraction much connected its brands pinch stronger sales, he added.

Yum Brands, based successful Louisville, Kentucky, expects some transactions to adjacent successful nan 3rd quarter. The company’s banal declined somewhat earlier nan marketplace open.

Chapman writes for nan Associated Press.