Popeyes suits QSR

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTL. $54.06 (New York symbol QSR; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (905-845-6511; www.rbi.com; Shares outstanding: 467.0 million; Market cap: $25.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) is the world’s third-largest fast-food operator, after McDonald’s (No. 1) and Yum Brands (No. 2), with 15,243 Burger King outlets and 4,492 Tim Hortons stores, in 100 countries. Restaurant Brands has now bought Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. (symbol PLKI on Nasdaq) for $1.64 billion. Like Burger King and Tim Hortons, Popeyes is nearly 100% franchise-owned. Popeyes began operations 45 years ago in New Orleans as a Southern-fried “Chicken on the Run” restaurant. The company has since expanded to more than 2,600 stores, mostly in the U.S. Restaurant Brands sees lots of potential for Popeyes to expand further in the U.S. and internationally, especially in China where it has no stores. Restaurant Brands International is still a hold. hold…