THAI business tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, who owns Thai Beverage, the country’s largest brewer and the name behind Chang Beer, is seeking to acquire fast-food chain KFC in Malaysia, Chinese daily SinChew reports.

Charoen is currently in the process of buying the KFC chain in Thailand, and has shown interest in expanding his influence in Malaysia by taking over the fast-food restaurants in Malaysia, which are owned by QRS Brands.

QRS Brands also runs PizzaHut and Ayamas. Its owners are the Johor government (51%), EPF (25%) and CVC (24%). SinChew reports that Thai Beverage is targeting to take over the shares of both EPF and CVC.

KFC was privatised in early 2013, and is worth RM5.1 billion. Last year, KFC was rumoured to be public-listed.

Charoen’s interest in QRS comes from his involvement in the retail food industry. Back in 2013, he bought over shares of Singapore’s Fraser and Neave.

Beginning August, ThaiBev has spent 11.3 billion baht (RM1.5 billion) securing the 240 outlets of KFC in Thailand. The takeover is scheduled to be completed by year-end. – October 11, 2017.