Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM – News) announced that its Board of Directors approved a dividend of $0.19 per share of common stock, which will be distributed February 6, 2009, to shareholders of record at the close of business on January 16, 2009.

Yum! has nearly quadrupled its quarterly dividend since the initiation of dividends in May 2004. The company offers a dividend yield comparable to the overall market combined with tremendous global growth opportunities. Yum! remains committed to its overriding strategies of achieving consistent financial performance and driving shareholder value.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants, with more than 35,000 restaurants in over 100 countries and territories. The company is ranked #253 on the Fortune 500 List, with revenues in excess of $10 billion in 2007. Four of the company’s restaurant brands – KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s – are the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, Mexican-style food and quick-service seafood categories, respectively. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened about four new restaurants each day of the year, making it the largest retail developer in the world. The company has consistently been recognized for its reward and recognition culture, diversity leadership, community giving, and consistent shareholder returns. Last year, the company launched the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort, in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme and other hunger relief agencies. This effort helped save over 1.6 million people from starvation in remote corners of the world, where hunger is most prevalent.