Owner of Pizza Hut UK, Yum! Brands, is in exclusive talks to sell the pizza restaurant chain to an unnamed private equity firm. The news comes as transformation investors Endless, pulled out of potentially buying the business this summer.
Yum! Brands, the American owner of Pizza Hut put the loss-making British restaurant chain up for sale last October. It has said that it would like to sell the chain by the end of 2012.
One of the problems making it hard to sell the chain, is the fact that all the restaurants need updating, which is estimated to cost tens of millions of pounds. Another problem is that any buyer would have to pay royalties to Yum!
There are currently 340 Pizza Huts in the UK. Turnover for 2011 fell to £330million from £346million in 2010, while losses increased from £20.6million to £24.1million.