McDonald's Corporation is looking to sell its South Korean business, according to a report from Korea Economic Daily.
McDonald's (MCD) has tasked Mirae Asset Securities as an advisor to help it find a buyer to take over the South Korean operation.
In general, growth in South Korea's burger market has been stalled since 2016 when McDonald's was hit by allegations that it sold undercooked burgers. The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 also hit the sector hard.
The McDonald's (MCD) South Korea development follows other M&A moves in the South Korean restaurant sector with Affinity Equity Partners planning for a sale of its stake in Burger King’s operations in South Korea and KG Group having hired Samjong KPMG LLC to look at to potentially selling KFC Korea.
Against that backdrop, industry sources said the number of burger restaurants is getting closer to a maximum level, which could make the MCD sale tougher than anticipated.
McDonald's (MCD) South Korean unit has seen losses for the last three years, with the pandemic a major drag on earnings for two of them.