Pizza Hut will soon have a new owner.
Yum! Brands announced Tuesday that it has agreed to sell Pizza Hut—excluding Mainland China—to private equity firm LongRange Capital for $1.5 billion, ending nearly five decades of ownership and setting the stage for one of the industry’s most closely watched turnarounds. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.
Yum! China will take over Pizza Hut China for $1.2 billion. This is expected to close in Q3 as well.
The deal follows months of speculation after Yum! disclosed in November 2025 that it was evaluating strategic alternatives for the struggling pizza chain, including a potential sale. Reuters and Bloomberg later reported that LongRange Capital, along with firms such as Sycamore Partners and Apollo Global Management, had expressed interest in acquiring the business.
Yum! will continue to provide proprietary tech platform Byte by Yum! to Pizza Hut outside of China.
“These transactions enable Yum! to be a more focused company that continues to leverage scale, technology and talent to accelerate our raising the B.A.R. priorities and deliver sustained value for our stakeholders,” Yum! CEO Chris Turner said in a statement. “Under LongRange and Yum China, Pizza Hut will be well positioned for future growth with ownership that brings deep expertise in the restaurant industry. Pizza Hut is one of the most iconic restaurant brands in the world, and we are proud of the important role it has played in Yum!’s history. Pizza Hut was built by the passion and dedication of our team members, employees and franchisees, and we’re excited for the next chapter.”
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Founded in 1958, Pizza Hut operates more than 15,500 restaurants across 108 countries and generates approximately $10 billion in annual systemwide sales. The chain remains one of the most recognized names in pizza, but its performance has lagged peers in recent years, particularly in the U.S.
The sale comes after several consecutive years of declining domestic sales and shrinking unit counts. In the first quarter of 2026, U.S. same-store sales fell 4 percent and systemwide sales declined 6 percent. For fiscal 2025, comps dropped 5 percent and systemwide sales decreased 8 percent following another year of negative results in 2024.
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Pizza Hut’s domestic footprint has also contracted significantly. The chain finished the first quarter with 6,121 U.S. restaurants, down from 6,551 five years earlier. Yum! previously announced plans to close roughly 250 additional U.S. locations during the first half of 2026 as part of its ongoing fleet optimization efforts.
The challenges prompted newly appointed Turner to launch a formal review of strategic options shortly after taking over the top role in October 2025. At the time, Turner said Pizza Hut possessed strong brand equity, experienced franchisees, and meaningful scale, but that the brand’s full potential might be better realized outside Yum!’s corporate structure.
“We believe a different approach, including but not limited to, a sale of the business would allow Pizza Hut to realize its full potential,” Turner said during Yum!’s earnings call last fall.
The transaction will separate Pizza Hut from Taco Bell and KFC for the first time in nearly four decades. Pizza Hut became part of PepsiCo in 1977, one year before Taco Bell joined the portfolio and nearly a decade before KFC was acquired. Those brands eventually became part of Tricon Global Restaurants, which later evolved into Yum!.
For LongRange Capital, the acquisition represents its largest move yet in the restaurant sector.
The Stamford, Connecticut-based private equity firm was founded in 2019 by Bob Berlin, a former investment executive at The Baupost Group who previously oversaw investments that included Arby’s. LongRange describes itself as a customer-focused and operationally driven investor that takes a long-term approach to building businesses. Its portfolio includes fitness chain 24 Hour Fitness, food manufacturer Bakkavor, mountain destination platform Alpin Unlimited, and deathcare company Batesville.
“Pizza Hut is a beloved global brand with a rich heritage and a loyal customer base that few brands can match,” Berlin said in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with Yum! to ensure a smooth transition for the business and working with Pizza Hut’s talented team and franchise partners to drive its next phase of growth through investments that deliver consistently great food and experiences for customers around the world.”
The question now becomes whether private ownership can accelerate a turnaround that Yum! struggled to fully achieve.
Pizza Hut has spent the better part of the last decade repositioning itself around delivery and carryout, moving away from its historic dine-in “Red Roof” restaurants. Since launching a $130 million transformation initiative in 2019, the chain has closed hundreds of older locations while shifting toward more efficient delivery and carryout formats. It has also invested heavily in value platforms, loyalty enhancements, digital ordering capabilities, and product innovation in an effort to regain share in a competitive pizza category.
Yet Pizza Hut continues to trail category leader Domino’s, which has widened the gap in both sales and unit count over the past several years.
Still, Pizza Hut retains considerable global strength. The brand operates in more than 100 countries and has continued to post positive performance in several international markets, including parts of Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. That global scale, combined with a franchise system that is almost entirely franchised, likely made the chain an attractive target for private equity buyers seeking a well-known consumer brand with room for operational improvement.
