Burgers, coffee and fried chicken will soon be under one roof. Restaurant Brands International Inc., the parent company of Burger King and Tim Hortons is acquiring Popeyes for $1.8 billion. The deal is expected to close in April.
Restaurant Brands hopes to use its global reach to expand Popeyes restaurants internationally. Currently, Popeyes, which primarily sells fried chicken, has over 2,000 restaurants worldwide with 1,600 located in the U.S. Popeyes revenue in 2015 was $259 million.
3G Capital, a Brazilian private equity firm, owns a 43% stake in Restaurant Brands, and has orchestrated multiple acquisitions of U.S. consumer companies, including Burger King’s acquisition of Tim Hortons in 2014 which formed Restaurant Brands, and the Kraft – Heinz merger in 2015. Earlier this week Kraft – Heinz attempted to acquire Unilever for $143 billion but was rejected. 3G Capital tends to “squeeze” profits out of its acquisitions through cost cutting and leveraging economies of scale. The real question this time will be if 3G can grow Popeyes into an international brand to rival the most dominant chicken fast food restaurants, which include Chick-fil-A, which is privately owned, and KFC, which is owned by Yum! Brands Inc.
