Yum China Announces US$460 Million Share Repurchase Agreements for First Half of 2026 as Part of US$1.5 Billion Full-Year Capital Return Plan
Shanghai, China (Dec 12, 2025) – Yum China Holdings, Inc. (the “Company” or “Yum China”) (NYSE: YUMC and HKEX: 9987) announced that it has entered into share repurchase agreements in the U.S. and Hong Kong for an aggregate repurchase amount of approximately US$460 million for the first half of 2026, commencing on January 12, 2026.
The share repurchase agreements include approximately US$350 million under the Rule 10b5-1 of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in the U.S. and approximately HK$880 million for a similar program in Hong Kong. These agreements are one component of the share repurchase program, and part of the broader plan to return US$1.5 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases in 2026. This annual amount of capital return is equivalent to around 9% of our market capitalization as of December 11, 2025.
“Yum China is committed to maintaining a dual focus: investing to drive business growth and delivering favorable capital returns to shareholders. Supported by a healthy cash position and strong cash-generation capabilities, we are on track to return US$4.5 billion to shareholders from 2024 through 2026. Starting in 2027, as outlined at our 2025 Investor Day, we plan to return approximately 100% of annual free cash flow after subsidiaries' dividend payments to non-controlling interests,” said Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China.
The average annual return in 2027 and 2028 is expected to be approximately US$900 million to over US$1 billion, and to exceed US$1 billion in 2028, through steadily increasing dividend per share over time and value-enhancing share repurchases.
Since 2017, Yum China has returned US$5.8 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements relating to our projected capital returns from 2025 and 2026. We intend all forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts and by the use of forward-looking words such as “expect,” “expectation,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “may,” “could,” “intend,” “belief,” “plan,” “estimate,” “target,” “predict,” “project,” “likely,” “will,” “continue,” “should,” “forecast,” “outlook,” “commit” or similar terminology. These statements are based on current estimates and assumptions made by us in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable under the circumstances, but there can be no assurance that such estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the Company’s future strategies, growth, business plans, capital allocation strategy, capital return plans (including dividend and share repurchase plans). Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance and are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and could cause our actual results or
