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Yum Brands$YUM · filed: grew revenue 8.8% in FY2025 to $8.2BSound shipTrillion Score 495Fall Risk MediumNext year $7.9B–$9.4B sealedCheck ▾Close ▴
What Yum Brands filed
Grew revenue 8.8% in FY2025 to $8.2 billion, operating margin 31.3% against a 4.3% median for eating places, equity -89.4% of assets, and dividend per share up 8 years running. Every figure links to the filing it came from on Yum Brands’s card. Sound ship: one warning sign. Trillion Score 495, #27 of 45 in its field; Fall Risk Medium (how it is measured).
What the house said in advance
Revenue for the fiscal year after 2025-12-31 between $7.9B and $9.4B, an 80% range sealed on 26 Sept 2026 · receipt #bfc52b · graded in public by the revenue in Yum Brands’s next annual report.
Figures as filed with the SEC. Ranges, scores and boats are statistical descriptions of past filings, not ratings or recommendations. Reporting, not advice.
In plain words
Yum! exits Pizza Hut in a **$2.7B** geography-split deal, removing **$1.8B** in losses and setting up franchisee consolidation.
$2.7 billion
divestiture of Pizza Hut
18,000-unit
global footprint by geography
$6 billion
in system sales
7,200 locations
with concentrated exposure to mainland China's
Yum! Brands closed a $2.7 billion divestiture of Pizza Hut, splitting the franchise between an unnamed U.S. private equity firm and a Chinese restaurant operator in what marks the company's sharpest restructuring since the 2016 China spin. The deal separates domestic and international operations along buyer lines, ending unified ownership that has existed since PepsiCo spun the brand in 1997.
The transaction divides Pizza Hut's 18,000-unit global footprint by geography. The U.S. buyer takes North American franchise rights and corporate stores, representing roughly 6,100 locations and $6 billion in system sales. The Chinese buyer acquires Asia-Pacific and select Middle East territories, inheriting approximately 7,200 locations with concentrated exposure to mainland China's 2,600 units. Yum! retains royalty streams on both sides through transition service agreements running through 2027, preserving roughly $340 million in annual franchise fees during the wind-down. The structure mirrors Inspire Brands' 2020 Dunkin' carve-out, where multiple bidders split assets rather than compete for the whole.
The sale removes Pizza Hut's $1.8 billion in trailing twelve-month operating losses from Yum!'s consolidated results, losses driven by persistent same-store sales declines averaging -3.2% since 2019. The brand's North American comp sales fell -7% in Q4 2024, underperforming Domino's +5.2% and Papa John's +2.1% in the same period. Management cited rising delivery costs and失去market share to aggregator-platform partnerships that Pizza Hut entered late. The divestiture leaves Yum! with KFC and Taco Bell, both posting positive comps and higher unit economics—KFC's average unit volume runs $1.3 million versus Pizza Hut's $890,000.
Allocators should track three follow-on events. First, the private equity buyer will likely announce a U.S. franchisee consolidation within 90 days, targeting the 340 underperforming units flagged in Yum!'s last 10-K. Second, watch for the Chinese buyer's rebranding or menu localization moves by mid-2025, especially in tier-two cities where Pizza Hut holds 22% casual dining share. Third, Yum! will face refinancing decisions on $3.1 billion in debt previously supported by Pizza Hut cash flows—credit markets are pricing a 60-basis-point spread tightening if the company uses sale proceeds for paydown rather than buybacks.
The Chinese buyer pays 1.4x forward sales for assets that Yum! internally valued at 0.9x during its 2023 strategic review, a $1.1 billion markup that reveals how split-buyer structures unlock value when no single party wants global exposure.
Branded by POPS4 · proof in 60 seconds
For the principal
Monitor Yum!'s debt refinancing post-close; proceeds allocation between paydown and buybacks signals capital discipline and covenant headroom.
For the operator
The split-buyer structure creates arbitrage in franchise acquisition costs; track U.S. unit-level deals in the next ninety days.
For the house
Short Yum! credit spreads into the refi window; long KFC franchise consolidators as the parent focuses remaining capital there.
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