By Kane Wu
HONG KONG, May 12 (Reuters) – Carlyle Group and Yum China Holdings are among suitors vying for a Jardine Matheson restaurant unit that runs KFC and Pizza Hut chains in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Asian markets, said two sources with knowledge of the sale.
The deal, which could fetch around $400 million, has also attracted interest from Taiwanese food conglomerate Uni-President as well as other private equity firms, said the sources, declining to be named as the details were not public.
Non-binding bids for Jardine Restaurant Group are due this week, said the two sources and another person.
Headquartered in Hong Kong, the group operates around 1,000 KFC and Pizza Hut outlets and employs about 25,000 employees in Hong Kong, Macau, Myanmar, Taiwan and Vietnam.
It also owns PHD, a take-out pizza chain in Hong Kong. The overall business generates about $35 million to $40 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, said the sources.
A Jardines spokesperson declined to comment.
Carlyle also declined to comment, while Yum China and Uni-President did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Global fast-food restaurant chains operating in Asia have benefited from urbanisation, a young population, and rising demand for convenient cheap dining. That’s helped them attract plenty of capital from local strategic players and private equity firms over the past decade.
The fast food market for the Asia-Pacific region was valued at about $270 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $465 billion by 2033, said ResearchandMarkets.com in a report last year.
Consumer spending in Hong Kong has, however, been soft, Jardines said in a 2025 annual report, due to deflationary pressures and that has hurt the restaurant segment of its portfolio.
CARLYLE AND YUM ARE EXPERIENCED FAST-FOOD HANDS
Carlyle announced a deal to acquire 100% of KFC Korea in December. It was also part of a group that bought a controlling stake in McDonald’s China in 2017. Carlyle sold its stake back to the U.S. fast food chain in 2023, gaining a hefty return.
Yum China, which was spun off from Yum Brands Inc in 2016, operates KFC and Pizza Hut in mainland China and counts private equity firm Primavera Capital and Jack Ma’s Ant Group as main backers.
A deal, if finalised, is expected to value the business at a high single-digit or low-teen multiple over core earnings, said the two sources. Jardines is open to selling one market or all, depending on the offer terms, one of them added.
The sale comes as Jardines seeks to reallocate capital to core businesses.
It completed a $4.2 billion take-private deal for luxury hotel group Mandarin Oriental in January.
Reuters reported in April that its DFI Retail unit was in talks with CK Hutchison to merge their Hong Kong supermarket divisions.
Those talks are now stalled, two of the sources said.
A spokesperson for DFI declined to comment. CK Hutchison did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Wen Yee-Lee in Taipei; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Edwina Gibbs)
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