Owned by the al-Kharafi family, Americana is the franchise operator of restaurants such as KFC, TGI Friday’s and Pizza Hut in the Middle East and North Africa. It also produces California Garden beans and Farm Frites frozen vegetables. Americana has been up for sale since 2014.
The deal to acquire a 69 percent stake in the food company has been under negotiation on and off for at least two years, with Adeptio LLC signing an accord last February to conduct a sale process in which Kuwait’s Al-Kharafi family had tested investor interest in the company without concluding a deal.
Other parties including Singapore's Temasek Holdings, Saudi food maker Savola Group, and private equity funds KKR and CVC had all expressed an in interest in Americana, according to Reuters.
"A final agreement has not been reached between Al Khair and the buyer, Adeptio, for all of Al Khair’s shares in Americana," Al Khair National for Stocks and Real Estate LLC said a statement on Sunday. "Therefore, the two sides have agreed to end negotiations.”
An Adeptio spokesperson said "The parties involved could not reach an agreement on mutually acceptable terms."
The stake would have been worth approximately $2.15 billion based on Americana's current market value of $3.11 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Trading in Americana's shares was halted on Sunday pending an announcement from the firm, Reuters reported.
