South Korean retail giant Lotte Group said Monday it has sold its entire stake in Burger King Japan Holdings, nine years after it acquired the fast-food franchise.



According to the Financial Supervisory Service, Lotte Group has sold its stake to Hong Kong-based private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners, the largest shareholder of Burger King Korea.







(Burger King)



While the exact price of the sell-off has not been revealed, industry sources said the deal could be worth around 10 billion won ($8.26 million).



AEP said it plans to inject 5 billion yen ($47.1 million) in the firm to increased the number of outlets in Japan from 100 to 300 by 2022.



In 2016, AEP acquired Burger King Korea for 210 billion won and has been aggressively added new branches since then.



Lotte’s restaurant operating unit Lotte GRS in 2010 acquired Burger King Japan Holdings under an agreement to take on 20 billion won in debt.



But due to intensifying competition from McDonald’s and Mos Burger, Burger King Japan has recorded 10 billion won loss each year since 2011, the company said.



Lotte said the sell-off is to streamline the group’s overseas businesses to improve its profitability.



Unlike Burger King Japan, Burger King Korea has recorded high earnings, raking in 402.7 billion won in sales last year, about 16 percent increase on-year. Last year’s operating profit came to 9 billion won, about a sixfold jump from the previous year.



BKR, the operator of Burger King Korea, said it will continue to expand the number of stores here from the current 360 branches.



By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)