Americana, the Kuwaiti operator of KFC, TGI Friday’s, Krispy Kreme and Red Lobster, is looking to private equity for a suitor willing to pay US$5 billion for the group.
KKR, Carlyle, CVC Capital Partners, Advent International and TPG Capital were among those named as interested in acquiring the company, according to media reports.
Private equity firms have recently shown an increased appetite for investments in the Arabian Gulf, as healthy economic and demographic growth create expansion opportunities for scalable business models in the region.
PepsiCo and PineBridge Investments Middle East have both sought investments in the Mena region in the past year, while KKR and Carlyle both have offices based in Dubai.
The billionaire Al Kharafi family owns 66.8 per cent of the Kuwait Food Company, which trades under the name Americana, and hired Rothschild in April to explore the possibility of a sale, according to Reuters.
Americana, which is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, has a market capitalisation of $4.34bn. It trades at a price-to-book ratio of 3.35, and a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.9.
The company recorded profits of $64 million on revenues of $814.1m in the first quarter.
For the previous year, the company earned profits of $178.9m from revenues of $3.06bn.
Americana’s stock price has gained 59.7 per cent since the beginning of the year, and has outperformed the Kuwait Stock Exchange by 44.5 per cent.
The company, which was founded in 1964, has more than 1480 stores, and operates 17 factories, across the Middle East and North Africa.
Americana also sells consumer food brands to retailers and “the group’s core business is in meat and poultry, canned food, dairy foods, frozen potatoes and vegetables and salty snacks,” the company says on its website.
KKR, Carlyle and Americana were unavailable for comment.
* with Bloomberg
abouramourn@thenational.ae
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