Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut for $2.7 billion in strategic overhaul

Yum! Brands agreed on June 16 to sell Pizza Hut for $2.7 billion. The deal splits the brand between LongRange Capital, which will take Pizza Hut outside mainland China for about $1.5 billion, and Yum China Holdings, which will buy Pizza Hut China for about $1.2 billion.

Yum said the strategic review began in November 2025, after plans to close about 250 underperforming U.S. Pizza Hut restaurants in the first half of 2026, equal to about 4% of the U.S. system. Pizza Hut will keep using Yum’s Byte technology platform and other transition services during the ownership change.

Pizza Hut had posted 10 straight quarters of same-store sales declines, and core operating profit fell 14% in the first quarter of 2026. Its worldwide store count fell from 20,225 at the end of 2024 to 19,974 at the end of 2025, and over the past decade the chain had 1,500 net closures, according to Yum’s earnings materials. Market share fell from 16.9% in 2015 to 12.1% in the first three quarters of 2025, according to Restaurant Dive.

Yum spent $36 million on the Pizza Hut review process in 2025, including $32 million in the fourth quarter, and wrote off $5 million in franchise incentive assets tied to rationalizing the estate before the transaction. The board approved a separate $4 billion share repurchase authorization. The transactions are expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to purchase price adjustments and closing conditions, with the company eligible for an additional $75 million earn-out by 2030 from the LongRange deal.

LongRange said Pizza Hut has more than 15,500 restaurants in 108 countries and about $10 billion in annual system-wide sales. The brand, founded in 1958, began franchising in 1959 and went public in 1972.