By Kane Wu

Hong Kong (Reuters] – Affinity Equity Partners, a private equity company, launched this week the sale of Burger King restaurants in South Korea and Japan. According to a source, the deal could bring in more than $1 billion.

Affinity, a Hong Kong company, has hired Goldman Sachs (NYSE 🙂 as its sales manager. The sale targets both strategic buyers and private equity investors.

The bank refused to comment.

Affinity purchased Burger King South Korea’s full ownership in 2016 for $170 million. A year later, it acquired Burger King Japan.

According to the source, 680 billion won (or $572 million) was reported by South Korean businesses in 2021. The adjusted earnings before interest taxes and depreciation (EBITDA), were at 80 billion won ($67 millions). In 2022, its EBITDA adjusted for inflation will be 100 billion won.

According to the source, Burger King Japan’s 2021 adjusted EBITDA was 700,000,000 yen (or $6 million).

Yum! and McDonald’s are global fast food chains like McDonald’s (NYSE) Refinitiv Eikon data shows that Brands (NYSE 🙂 trade at around 20-30 times their EBITDA. Burger King India’s EBITDA is about 25x.

Affinity Japan, Burger King Japan, and Burger King Japan have not yet responded to my request for comment.

A BKR Corporation official, South Korea’s operator of Burger King, refused to comment.

On Monday, the business daily reported on the first sale.

The disruption and enormous challenges facing the retail sector and the consumer are causing it to be a result of the coronavirus epidemic.

South Korea’s businesses are adapting by increasing their dependence on delivery, which has led to an exponential increase in food delivery services.

Burger King Korea reported Monday that its monthly active user base on the mobile app exceeded 1.4 millions in December. This is the most since it was launched in May 2016

Burger King is expanding in Japan and South Korea since Affinity acquired it.

Burger King operates 440 restaurants in South Korea. That’s more than McDonald’s.

Japan’s franchise announced Monday that it will open 3 new stores in January. This brings the total to 149. Plans are to expand more aggressively in 2022.

($1 = 114.4800 yen)