YUM! Brands Makes Preliminary Proposal to Acquire China's Little Sheep Restaurants

YUM! Brands Makes Preliminary Proposal to Acquire China's Little Sheep Restaurants

  • Chairman and other founding shareholders would retain minority interest
  • Formal offer from YUM contingent on regulatory approvals

LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--YUM! Brands (NYSE: YUM) today announced that it has submitted a preliminary proposal to Little Sheep Group Limited under which YUM! Brands would offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Little Sheep, other than a minority interest to be held by the chairman and other founding shareholders of Little Sheep. Little Sheep owns and operates Hot Pot concept restaurants primarily in China and is headquartered in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China. Its shares are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. YUM! Brands currently owns 27.2% of the outstanding shares of Little Sheep. No formal offer has been made at this stage and any such offer, should one be made, would be made only after YUM! Brands has obtained all necessary regulatory approvals for the transaction. There can be no assurance that the current discussions between YUM! Brands and Little Sheep regarding the proposal will ultimately lead to an offer being made or, if an offer is made, that it will result in a completed transaction.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world's largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants with nearly 38,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries and territories. The company is ranked #216 on the Fortune 500 List and generated revenues of more than $11 billion in 2010. Four of the company's restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver's – are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican–style food and quick–service seafood categories, respectively. A&W Restaurants is the longest running quick-service franchise chain in America. Outside the United States in 2010, the Yum! Brands system opened approximately four new restaurants each day of the year, making it a leader in international retail development. The company has consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture, diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder returns. In 2007, Yum! launched World Hunger Relief, the world's largest private sector hunger relief effort to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and other hunger relief agencies. To date, this effort has raised nearly $85 million for WFP and other hunger relief agencies and is helping to provide approximately 350 million meals, saving the lives of millions of people in remote corners of the world where hunger is most prevalent.

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