Would Yum Dare Spin Off Its China Operations? (UPDATE)

Please Note: This article has been updated since the company sent a direct comment on the matter.

It is one thing to call for a company to break itself up. It is another issue entirely to get a company to go about a breakup. Meister said his presentation was called “Think Mas.”

By getting China spun out of the company, the Chinese operations could then move to a franchise model. Meister said that only 10% is franchised now. He maintained through this whole effort that Yum is a great company, but making it two outfits would make it even greater. Meister even thinks that a spin-off here would be close to seamless.

Another benefit, according to Meister, is that it solves multiple issues of its current structure at once. It would allow the investors who want growth from China to have direct exposure to that and that only.

Corvex is now said to be one of Yum’s top five shareholders, and Meister said that Yum is his second largest position.

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Yum has a market cap of $40 billion. That can make it perhaps much more difficult to push management into positions in which they might have to listen as much as smaller companies. For whatever it is worth, Yum also has one of the more complicated earnings reports to digest.

Here is what Greg Creed, CEO of Yum Brands, said on China, earnings and growth expectations along with earnings in the past couple of weeks:

Our confidence in China is bolstered by improving sales and upward momentum in customer perceptions. China Division restaurant margins were a healthy 19% even though same-store sales declined 12%, reinforcing our belief in significant operating leverage as sales recover. We remain on track to open at least 700 new restaurants in China this year with strong returns, laying the groundwork for future growth. … Importantly, we’re on pace to set a new record in international development this year, opening 2,100 new restaurants and extending our lead in emerging markets. We expect overall operating results will enable us to achieve targeted earnings growth this year, despite strengthening headwinds from foreign currency translation.

Shares of Yum were up 1% Monday afternoon, at $92.80 in a 52-week trading range of $65.81 to $94.13. What is interesting is that the $94.13 high was seen earlier in the day. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $87.74, with the highest price target from analysts at $110.00.

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Yum! Brands did send out comments to the media on Monday. One of the company’s spokespersons said:

The YUM Board of Directors regularly reviews strategic options to optimize long-term shareholder value.  We welcome the input of our shareholders and remain committed to explore all options to enhance long-term shareholder value.  In any event, our focus is to get our China business back on track.  We are making steady progress as evidenced by our first quarter results, and we expect to have a strong second half of the year and deliver at least 10% EPS growth in 2015.