Friday, November 26, 2010

Carlyle's Chinese Chicken Could Supply KFC


The Carlyle Group bid for control of KFC Holdings Bhd., Maylasia's biggest fast-food operator.  QSR Brands' holdings include the Pizza Hut chain of restaurants in Malaysia and Singapore.While Bloomberg and TheStar highlight Carlyle's franchise track record, they ignore Carlyle's Asian poultry grower, CP Pokphand.  QSR has three brand opportunities for poultry growers, KFC, Rasamas, and Ayamas retail.  Should CP Pokphand garner QSR sales, might China Fishery Group be next?

Retail suddenly has Carlyle's interest.  The Carlyle Group loves layers of profit.  Add that China will soon unleash private equity underwriters (PEU's). FT reported:

“A three-to-five-year investment is relatively long in the private equity world so we’re quite transitory,” says David Rubenstein, Carlyle co-founder. “The Chinese government also recognizes how we can help local companies acquire western competitors and technologies and that’s something they’re very interested in.  GE is not teaching people in China to buy companies in the west like we are.”
This should work out badly.

Update11-29-10:  QSR chose to stay independent, rejecting all bids.