SHANGHAI, Oct. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Yum China Holdings, Inc. (the "Company" or "Yum China") (NYSE: YUMC) today reported unaudited results for the third quarter ended August 31, 2017.

Third Quarter Highlights

• Same-store sales grew 6%, including growth of 7% at KFC, flat at Pizza Hut.
• Total system sales grew 10%, including growth of 11% at KFC and 7% at Pizza Hut, excluding foreign currency translation ("F/X").
• Opened 129 new restaurants during the quarter.
• Total restaurant margin increased 0.8 percentage points to 20.0%, primarily driven by same-store sales leverage.
• Operating profit increased 11%, and 13% excluding F/X, primarily driven by same-store sales growth. F/X negatively impacted reported operating profit by $5 million.
• Basic EPS increased 4% to $0.55 and diluted EPS was flat at $0.53.
• Effective tax rate was 31.7%, compared to 29.8% in the prior-year quarter, primarily due to higher costs of repatriating current year earnings into the U.S.
• Net income increased 9% to $211 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA increased 9% to $425 million.

Dividend and Share Repurchase

• The Board of Directors has approved a regular quarterly cash dividend program, and declared an initial cash dividend of $0.10 per share on Yum China's common stock.
• The Board of Directors has increased Yum China's existing share repurchase authorization from $300 million to an aggregate of $550 million.

CEO Comments

"We are pleased to report the third consecutive quarter of delivering positive same-store sales growth. With revenues exceeding $2 billion in the quarter, restaurant margin, operating profit and net income have all improved. We opened 129 new restaurants in the third quarter and we are on track to achieve our development target of 550-600 new stores in the year," said Micky Pant, CEO of Yum China. 

"In this quarter, our strategic initiatives on digital and delivery continued to show encouraging development, which we believe will enable our long-term growth. The connection with our over 120 million loyalty members is getting stronger. The growth in mobile payments and cashless settlement methods for sales continued to outperform previous quarters. With over 5,100 restaurants across China offering delivery service, delivery contributed over 14% of company sales in the third quarter.

Given the strength of our business and our confidence in generating strong cash flows long term, our Board of Directors has approved a regular quarterly cash dividend program and authorized additional share repurchases.  These demonstrate our strong commitment to increase shareholder returns through disciplined capital allocation while simultaneously driving strong operating performance.

With our strong operating results in this third quarter and our commitment to return capital to shareholders, we believe we are well positioned to continue to increase shareholder value over the long run."

New-Unit Development and Asset Upgrade

• Opened 129 new restaurants during the third quarter, and 352 year to date.
• Remodeled 200 restaurants during the third quarter, and 429 year to date, led by KFC.

Restaurant Margin

• For the third quarter, restaurant margin for Yum China increased 0.8 percentage points to 20.0%, primarily driven by same-store sales leverage and labor efficiency, partially offset by wage inflation and promotion costs.
• Year to date, restaurant margin for Yum China increased 2.3 percentage points to 19.3%, primarily due to the impact of retail tax structure reform, and also driven by same-store sales leverage, partially offset by wage inflation and commodity inflation.

Digital and Delivery

• Driven by our digital initiatives, we continued to strengthen our loyalty membership programs. By the end of the third quarter, total members in our loyalty programs surpassed 120 million, including 97 million members for KFC and 30 million for Pizza Hut.
• Mobile payments exceeded 45% of company sales in the third quarter of 2017. Over $1.2 billion in company sales were settled by cashless payment methods during the quarter.
• Over 5,100 restaurants across China offered delivery services as of the end of the third quarter. Delivery contributed over 14% of company sales in the third quarter.

Share Repurchase Update

• For the year to date ended August 31, 2017, we repurchased approximately 3.4 million shares for $128 million at an average price of $38.18 per share.
• In October 2017, the Board of Directors increased Yum China's existing share repurchase authorization from $300 million to an aggregate of $550 million.

Dividend

• The Board of Directors has approved a regular quarterly cash dividend program, and declared an initial cash dividend of $0.10 per share on Yum China's common stock, payable as of the close of business on December 21, 2017 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on November 30, 2017. Future dividends will be subject to review and approval by the Board of Directors.

Conference Call

Yum China Holdings, Inc. will host a conference call to review the Company's financial performance and strategies at 8:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Thursday, October 5, 2017 (8:00 a.m.Beijing/Hong Kong Time on Friday, October 6, 2017).  A copy of the presentation will be available on the Yum China Holdings, Inc. website, http://ir.yumchina.com.

A live webcast of the call may also be accessed at https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/62ngn9wc.

A replay of the conference call may be accessed by phone at the following numbers two hours after the call ends until 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time on Friday, October 13, 2017 (9:00 p.m.Beijing/Hong Kong Time on Friday, October 13, 2017):

The webcast and the playback can be accessed via the internet by visiting the Yum China Holdings, Inc. website, http://ir.yumchina.com

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. 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," "likely," "will," "should," "forecast," "outlook" 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 future business plans and performance of Yum China, future dividends, anticipated effects of population and macroeconomic trends, the capital structure of Yum China and beliefs regarding the long-term drivers of Yum China's business. 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 to differ materially from those indicated by those statements. We cannot assure you that any of our expectations, estimates or assumptions will be achieved. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are only made as of the date of this press release, and we disclaim any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement to reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by law. Numerous factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: whether we are able to achieve development goals at the times and in the amounts currently anticipated, if at all, the success of our marketing campaigns and product innovation, our ability to maintain food safety and quality control systems, our ability to control costs and expenses, including tax costs, as well as changes in political, economic and regulatory conditions in China. In addition, other risks and uncertainties not presently known to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial could affect the accuracy of any such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements should be evaluated with the understanding of their inherent uncertainty. You should consult our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (including the information set forth under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K) for additional detail about factors that could affect our financial and other results.

About Yum China Holdings, Inc.

Yum China Holdings, Inc. is a licensee of Yum! Brands in mainland China. It has exclusive rights in mainland China to KFC, China's leading quick-service restaurant brand, Pizza Hut, the leading casual dining restaurant brand in China, and Taco Bell, which opened its first restaurant in China at the end of 2016. Yum China also owns the Little Sheep and East Dawning concepts outright. Yum China is well positioned for growth thanks to its strong competitive position, integration of its brands into Chinese popular culture and consumers' daily lives, expanding geographic footprint in China and existing operational expertise. It has a strong capital position, no external debt and expects to continue growing its system sales and profit by adding new restaurants and through growing same-store sales. Yum China had more than 7,700 restaurants and more than 420,000 employees in over 1,100 cities at the end of August 2017. A new generation of younger consumers who are digitally sophisticated and brand driven are fueling growth in consumption in China. The ongoing growth of the middle class and urban population in China is expected to create the world's largest market for restaurant brands, with Yum China poised to be the market leader.

Reconciliation of Reported Results to Non-GAAP Measures 
(amounts in US$ million) 
(unaudited)

In this press release:

• The Company provides certain percentage changes excluding the impact of F/X. These amounts are derived by translating current year results at prior year average exchange rates. We believe the elimination of the F/X impact provides better year-to-year comparability without the distortion of foreign currency fluctuations.
• System sales growth reflects the results of all restaurants regardless of ownership, including Company-owned, franchise and unconsolidated affiliate restaurants that operate our concepts, except for non-Company-owned restaurants for which we do not receive a sales-based royalty. Sales of franchise and unconsolidated affiliate restaurants typically generate ongoing franchise fees for the Company at a rate of approximately 6% of system sales. Franchise and unconsolidated affiliate restaurant sales are not included in Company sales on the Condensed Consolidated and Combined Summary of Results; however, the franchise fees are included in the Company's revenues. We believe system sales growth is useful to investors as a significant indicator of the overall strength of our business as it incorporates all of our revenue drivers, Company and franchise same-store sales as well as net unit growth.
• Same-store sales growth is the estimated percentage change in sales of all restaurants that have been open and in the Company system one year or more.
• Company Restaurant profit ("Restaurant profit") is defined as Company sales less expenses incurred directly by our Company-owned restaurants in generating Company sales. Company restaurant margin percentage is defined as Restaurant profit divided by Company sales.

In addition to the results provided in accordance with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP") in this press release, the Company provides non-GAAP measures which present Operating Profit before Special Items, Diluted Earnings Per Common Share before Special Items, Effective tax rate before Special Items and Adjusted EBITDA, which we define as net income including noncontrolling interests adjusted for income tax, interest income, depreciation, amortization and other items, including store impairment charges. Special Items consist of reversal of loss associated with sale of the aircraft, income from the reversal of contingent consideration previously recorded for a business combination and impact of the redemption of the Little Sheep noncontrolling interest which are described in (a), (b), (c) and (d) in the accompanying notes. The Company excludes impact from Special Items for the purpose of evaluating performance internally. Special Items are not included in any of our segment results. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to replace the presentation of our financial results in accordance with GAAP. Rather, the Company believes that the presentation of these non-GAAP measures provides additional information to investors to facilitate the comparison of past and present results, excluding those items that we do not believe are indicative of our ongoing operations due to their nature. These non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for GAAP financial results, but should be read in conjunction with the unaudited Condensed Consolidated and Combined Summary of Results and other information presented herein. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures follows.