Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut to private equity firm

Yum Brands announced Tuesday that it plans to sell Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital for about $1.5 billion.

The deal excludes the locations in China, but Yum China will acquire those for about $1.2 billion in a separate transaction.

“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,” said Yum! Brands CEO Chris Turner in a statement.

In November, Yum announced it was conducting a strategic review of Pizza Hut.

Yum’s leadership team and board of directors said they determined that selling the brand “provides the strongest path to maximize shareholder value while providing Pizza Hut an ownership structure tailored to its distinct markets, competitive strengths and long-term priorities under leadership with significant relevant QSR [quick-service restaurant] experience.”

With both deals, Yum said it expects to gain about $2.3 billion in net proceeds, closing adjustments and fees. That includes a possible earn-out of $75 million by 2030 from LongRange, CNBC reported. Yum anticipates one-time expenses of about $85 million for the rest of 2026.

Yum management will offer more details about the financial impact of the transactions during its second-quarter conference call on July 30, the company said. It expects the sales to close in the third quarter.

The trio of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell was once owned by PepsiCo, until it spun off its restaurants in 1997 to Tricon Global, which later renamed itself Yum. This deal breaks up that longtime trio.

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