Yum Brands Inc (YUM.N), owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell, shared it expects to return as much as $13.5 billion to shareholders by 2019 after the separation of its China unit.
Yum Brands’ shares were up 1.2% at $88.45 before the bell on Tuesday.
The company said it would increase franchise restaurant ownership to 93%, from 77 % now, when the China business is spun off on October 31. The company aims to be least 98% franchised by the end of 2018.
Yum said it had bought back $5.2 billion of shares as a part of its previously announced capital return program of $6.2 billion, reducing its share count by about 16%.
The company also said it would reduce capital expenditure to about $100 million in 2019, from about $500 million in 2015.
Yum recently reported its first same-store sales drop in five quarters in China, blaming anti-U.S. protests after an international court rejected China’s claim to historic rights in the South China Sea.
Yum’s China business will begin trading on November 1 on the NYSE with the ticker symbol YUMC.