Famous Brands Buys 49% of Mr Bigg’s

Famous Brands, a public company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa said it had bought 49 percent of Nigeria’s UAC Restaurants (UACR) for an undisclosed sum.

Larry Ettah, UAC group MD, described this deal as a “transformative.”

UACR runs the quick service restaurant (QSR) operations in Nigeria and owns the leading Mr Bigg’s restaurants in Africa’s most populous country.

Mr. Bigg's is Nigeria's first chain of fast food restaurants with some 170 locations in Nigeria, including the country's first drive-through restaurant, with another four locations in Ghana.

The restaurant is styled after McDonald's, and is known for its red and yellow colour scheme and meat pies.

Mr. Bigg's history begins with the coffee shops inside Kingsway Department Stores in the 1960s.

Famous Brands will use money from its cash reserves to buy this stake. The transaction will be effective from early next month.

Kevin Hedderwick, the CEO at Famous Brands, said the transaction will bolster the firm’s plans to increase its footprint in the African market.

Famous Brands has had operations in many African cities for a decade and a half now.

“We (therefore) have a good grasp of doing business in those territories; prudent expansion in a select range of key markets in the region has always been part of our programme,” Hedderwick said in a statement.

Ettah said the transaction will make sure that UACR has the most important strategic associate to release value prospects in the QSR scene.