Samil PwC expands global presence with Carlyle Japan KFC deal

Global leader in the accounting industry, South Korean member firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is expanding its presence through global mergers and acquisitions, advising on the sale of Japanese fried chicken franchise operator KFC Corp. to The Carlyle Group Inc.

Seoul-based Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers and PwC Japan jointly acted as sell-side M&A advisors on the transaction of Tokyo-listed KFC Holdings Japan Ltd., valued at 135 billion yen ($859.4 million), according to banking sources on Thursday.

Carlyle announced a tender offer on May 21 to acquire KFC Holdings Japan at a price of 6,500 yen per share, representing a premium of 20.4% over the fast food franchise’s closing price the previous day. The takeover offer will last until July 9.

After the tender offer, the American private equity giant plans to buy back the entire 35.1% stake in Mitsubishi Corp. by September. in KFC Holdings Japan and delist the fast food chain from the stock exchange.

“It is unusual for a Korean accounting firm to advise a Japanese listed company on a sale to a global PE manager. PwC’s global networks strongly support Samil PwC’s cross-border transactions,” said a representative of the banking industry.

Samil PwC’s involvement in the KFC Holdings Japan transaction comes after the accounting firm provided advisory services to Seoul-based Orchestra Private Equity, which acquired 100% of KFC Korea in January 2023 for 55 billion won ($40.1 million ).

Yummy! According to banking sources, Brands, the parent group of KFC’s global business, has established a relationship with Samil PwC as part of the KFC Korea deal and has asked the accounting firm to retain its advisory services in the sale of KFC Holdings Japan.

Steven Jeong, a partner in Samil PwC’s cross-border corporate finance and M&A practice, led services at PwC Japan.

Samil PwC and PwC Japan also cooperated as advisors to Japanese retail giant Aeon Co. with the sale of the Ministop Korea convenience store chain in January 2022 to Lotte Corp. then acquired 100% of Ministop Korea for 313.4 billion won.

write to Jong-Kwan Park at [email protected]
Jihyun Kim edited this article.