Who owns KFC?

However, the company's rapid expansion overwhelmed the aging Sanders, and he sold it to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown Jr. and Jack C. Massey in 1964.

In the early 1970s, KFC was sold to the spirits distributor Heublein, which was taken over by the R. J. Reynolds food and tobacco conglomerate; that company sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain was the first to expand internationally, and in 1987, it became the first Western restaurant chain to open in China.

PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division in 1997 and created Tricon Global Restaurants, which later changed its name to Yum! Brands. In addition to KFC, Tricon Global Restaurants acquired Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC.

It acquired seafood chain Long John Silver's and root beer chain AW Restaurants in 2002. This was also when the company changed its name to Yum! Brands after its ticker symbol.

The largest shareholders in Yum! Brands and, ultimately, KFC include institutional investors such as Capital Research Management Co. (13.9% of all shares), T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. (11.8% of all shares), and The Vanguard Group, Inc. (7.6% of all shares).