Jun 17, 2026
Pizza Hut is getting sliced up in a major sale.
Yum Brands announced on Tuesday that it was selling Pizza Hut operations outside China for $1.5 billion to LongRange Capital, a Connecticut-based private equity firm. In a separate $1.2 billion deal, Yum China Holdings will acquire the pizza chain’s mainland China presence. Both sales are expected to close in the third quarter of the year.
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The agreement follows a strategic review of the pizza chain’s performance and evaluation of a possible sale that started in November. Yum Brands CEO Chris Turner said the deal will strengthen Pizza Hut’s benefits to shareholders and allow it to devote more resources to its successful brands.
“Under LongRange and Yum China, Pizza Hut will be well positioned for future growth with ownership that brings deep expertise in the restaurant industry,” Turner said in a news release.
Yum Brands stock jumped 3% to about $160 per share on Tuesday morning after news of the Pizza Hut sale broke. Overall, its stock is up 12% over the past year.
The Louisville, Ky.-based company also owns Taco Bell and KFC, both fast-food restaurants that posted sales growth in the first quarter of 2026. Taco Bell in particular has outperformed similar fast-food competitors with an 8% increase in same-store sales in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the prior year.
Pizza Hut has struggled in recent years
Pizza Hut has 6,300 locations in the U.S., making it the second-largest pizza restaurant in the U.S. It has 20,000 locations worldwide and the chain has changed hands twice since it was founded in 1958. Pizza Hut was last sold in 1997 when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant holdings into what became Yum Brands.
More recently, the pizza chain has struggled to translate its large domestic footprint into sturdy revenue growth with the popularity of companies like Doordash, which deliver cuisines besides pizza at the touch of a smartphone button.
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Pizza Hut’s same-store sales slid 5% last year and its parent company had announced in February it was closing 250 unprofitable locations in the U.S. The pizza chain has grappled with aging physical restaurants as well, though it embarked on a nostalgic push starting last month to restore a 1990s aesthetic to 155 U.S. locations to encourage in-person dining.
One market analyst observed that the level of financial resources required to turn around Pizza Hut had surpassed its parent company’s appetite.
“Despite efforts to revitalize the brand and shut underperforming locations, it has become increasingly clear that pushing the division back into growth will require a level of investment and patience that Yum is just not prepared to commit to,” managing director of GlobalData Neal Saunders wrote on Tuesday.
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Do Americans still love pizza?
Pizza Hut isn’t alone in dealing with stiff competition for a slice of Americans’ hard-earned cash. With inflation pushing up the costs of dining out, families are more likely to cook meals at home or simply slim down their delivery orders.
In the first quarter of 2026, Papa John’s International reported a 7.7% drop in revenue to $478.6 million compared to the year before. It is also planning to close 300 U.S. locations in the next two years.
Frozen pizza sales, though, are robust with budget-conscious Americans trading takeout for cheaper alternatives. Greenwhich Capital Group projected last year that frozen pizza sales would grow at a 6% annual rate through 2030.
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Joseph Zeballos-Roig is a policy and politics journalist based in Washington D.C with a focus on economics. He is experienced in connecting the significance of events in the capital to the lives of everyday Americans whether its taxes, tariffs, interest rates or federal programs.
