Yum China Holdings Inc. (NYSE:YUMC) (9987.HK), operator of the KFC and Pizza Hut chains on the Chinese Mainland, wasn't included in a second round of bidders vying for the franchisee of the two restaurant brands in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Vietnam, according to a Chinese media report on Saturday.

Yum China had no comment on the report, which came from Chinese-language media LatePost, and didn't cite sources for the information.

The report came about two weeks after foreign media first reported that Yum China was among the entities interested in bidding for Jardine Restaurant Group, the restaurant arm of Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson (JARD.SI), which owns the rights to operate KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Vietnam and Myanmar. The group currently operates about 1,000 stores in those markets, according to the earlier reports.

Both KFC and Pizza Hut are owned by U.S.-based Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM), which spun off its Mainland China operations in 2016 as a separate company, Yum China.

Other companies interested in buying Jardine Restaurant Group included private equity giant Carlyle, as well as Uni-President, one of Taiwan's leading food product makers, according to the earlier reports. The LatePost report did not state whether those two entities were included in the second round of bidding.

Yum China is Mainland China's largest restaurant operator, with a history dating back to 1987 when it opened its first KFC in Beijing. The company had 13,454 KFCs and 4,375 Pizza Huts in Mainland China at the end of March, according to its latest financial report for the first quarter of 2026.

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