McDonald’s to buy Carlyle’s stake in China business

Fast food chain McDonald’s Corporation has agreed to acquire Carlyle’s 28 percent stake in the consortium that operates the McDonald’s business in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Through its equity affiliate Citic Capital, the Citic Consortium will maintain a 52 percent controlling stake while McDonald’s will increase its ownership in the business to 48 percent.

“Our strategic partnership with CITIC and Carlyle has been extremely successful in growing McDonald’s presence in the region since it began. China is now our second largest market; we’ve doubled our restaurants to more than 5500 since 2017,” said Chris Kempczinski, McDonald’s president and CEO.

“We believe there is no better time to simplify our structure, given the tremendous opportunity to capture increased demand and further benefit from our fastest-growing market’s long-term potential.”

The acquisition comes amid the consortium’s target to reach more than 10,000 McDonald’s stores in the region by FY28 and nearly six years after the burger chain agreed to sell 80 percent of its China and Hong Kong businesses to Citic and Carlyle for up to $2.1 billion.

“As McDonald’s China’s controlling shareholder, we are thrilled by McDonald’s Corporation’s continued commitment to our long-term partnership and the China market,” said Yichen Zhang, Citic Capital CEO and McDonald’s China chairman.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.