Billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi’s ThaiBev reportedly mulls selling Thailand’s biggest KFC franchise business

The Singapore-listed firm is working with Bank of America Corp. to gauge interest and deliberations are underway, though a sale is not guaranteed, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The franchise is operated by its subsidiary, The QSR of Asia (QSA), which acquired more than 240 KFC stores in Thailand from Yum Restaurants International (Thailand) for around 11.3 billion baht (US$336.2 million) in 2017, the Bangkok Post reported at the time.

QSA now has more than 500 KFC outlets nationwide, surpassing the two other operators: Central Group’s Central Plaza Hotel with around 347 outlets and Devyani International-backed Restaurants Development with over 240, according to Kaohoon International.

ThaiBev is the country’s largest beverage producer, best known for its Chang beer and SangSom rum.

For its first half ended March 31, the firm posted a net profit of 14.2 billion baht, down 3.2% year-on-year, on revenues of 173.2 billion baht, down 2.5%.

Profit attributable to its food business dropped 21.7% year-on-year to 54 million baht during the period, weighed down by higher depreciation expenses from restaurant expansion and increased income tax costs, Reuters reported.

ThaiBev is part of the business empire controlled by Charoen, which also includes Singapore-listed property developer Frasers Property, packaging firm Berli Jucker, developer Asset World and hypermarket operator Big C Supercenter.

Forbes ranked Charoen and his family fifth on Thailand’s rich list earlier this month, estimating their net worth at US$11.5 billion.