Sale of China’s Burger King franchise at stake

TAB Food Investments is looking to sell its 50-per-cent stake in Burger King’s China operations, which could value the asset at more than $1.2 billion, according to Bloomberg.

TAB Food is the largest global franchisee of Restaurant Brands International and runs more than 1200 Burger King locations across China. The business had expressed interest in launching an IPO for its China operations some time ago, though now may be investigating exiting the business entirely.

According to sources, the deliberations are still at an early stage, and TAB could still decide to hold on to the business or revive the IPO plans which were postponed in 2018 with no reason given.

An ongoing sale process isn’t underway, a TAB spokesperson told Bloomberg. The business is the biggest franchisor of Burger King globally and manages close to 2000 restaurants across China and Turkey.

TAB also holds the rights to the Popeye’s Chicken brand, which has just opened its first store in Shanghai and is set to launch further 1500 in China over the next 10 years.