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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 at a **5.2x** EBITDA discount to recent QSR deals, confirming the brand's structural impairment in delivery-dominated pizza.
$2.7 billion
severing its oldest brand relationship after the chain flagged
250
restaurant closures scheduled for 2026
28%
of ticket value
4.7%
in Q1 2025
Yum Brands announced Tuesday it will sell Pizza Hut to a private equity consortium for $2.7 billion, severing its oldest brand relationship after the chain flagged 250 restaurant closures scheduled for 2026. The transaction marks the first major divestiture in Yum's portfolio since spinning Taco Bell's international operations in 2016 and removes a business that has underperformed KFC and Taco Bell for seven consecutive quarters.
The sale comes three weeks after Pizza Hut disclosed the closure plan in a regulatory filing, citing "persistent traffic declines in legacy suburban markets" and margin compression from delivery-app commission structures that now average 28% of ticket value. Same-store sales fell 4.7% in Q1 2025, the steepest drop among Yum's three major brands. The 250 closures represent roughly 6% of Pizza Hut's U.S. footprint and will concentrate in markets where the chain operates company-owned stores rather than franchised units. Yum did not disclose the buyer consortium's composition but confirmed the group includes a U.S.-based PE firm and an undisclosed strategic partner.
The $2.7 billion valuation implies a multiple of approximately 5.2x trailing EBITDA, below the 7-9x range typical for QSR transactions over the past 18 months. That discount reflects both Pizza Hut's operational headwinds and the structural shift in casual dining, where delivery platforms have inverted the economics of the pizza category. Domino's vertically integrated delivery model and Little Caesars' value positioning have taken market share while Pizza Hut's franchise system struggled to absorb third-party logistics costs. The sale allows Yum to reallocate capital toward KFC and Taco Bell, which generate higher unit economics and require less corporate support infrastructure. Investors will watch whether the consortium attempts a turnaround or accelerates rationalization to extract cash flow from remaining high-performing markets.
Allocators should monitor two developments in the next 90-120 days: the identity of the strategic partner in the buyer consortium, which will signal whether this is a financial-engineering play or a genuine operational bet, and Yum's deployment of the $2.7 billion in proceeds. The company carries $11.2 billion in net debt and has historically returned excess capital through buybacks rather than bolt-on acquisitions. If Yum announces accelerated repurchases or a special dividend within the next quarter, it confirms management's view that portfolio optimization beats brand rehabilitation. The closure timeline also matters—if the 250 units shutter before the transaction closes in Q4 2025, the buyer inherits a cleaner but smaller asset.
The transaction settles at a valuation that prices in contraction, not recovery. That spread between 5.2x and market comps tells allocators how private equity now underwrites legacy QSR assets in a delivery-dominated category.
Branded by POPS4 · proof in 60 seconds
For the principal
Watch Yum's capital allocation next quarter—$2.7B proceeds likely flow to buybacks, confirming no appetite for pizza-category reinvestment.
For the operator
Track buyer consortium identity within 90 days; strategic partner signals turnaround intent versus financial strip-and-flip positioning.
For the house
Short-term neutral on YUM equity; await proceeds deployment clarity before re-rating; avoid pizza-category exposure until delivery economics normalize.
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