McDonald’s Corporation announced it has selected Lionhorn Pte.Ltd. as the Developmental Licensee (DL) for Singapore and Malaysia.
Lionhorn is led by Sheik Fahd and Abdulrahman Alireza, who bring 20 years of experience as the DL for the nearly 100 McDonald's restaurants in the Western and Southern regions of Saudi Arabia. The new DL assumed ownership of the McDonald's business in Malaysia and Singapore on December 1, 2016, which includes a total of 390 restaurants, more than 80 per cent of which were company-owned.
Speaking about the deal, McDonald's President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook said, "This transaction marks another milestone in our Company's ongoing efforts to identify strategic partners who share our values and vision to accelerate our growth and scale across diverse markets, drive innovation and place us closer to our customers and the communities we serve.”
Under the DL structure, McDonald's transferred its ownership interest in McDonald's Malaysia and Singapore and granted a license to the DL to run McDonald's restaurant operations in these markets. The DL partner will provide the capital necessary to support and grow the business and will pay an initial franchise fee and an ongoing royalty to McDonald's.
"We are pleased to welcome Sheik Fahd as the Developmental Licensee for our business in Malaysia and Singapore," said Simone Hoyle, Head of McDonald's Asia Foundational Markets. "Sheik Fahd and Abdulrahman Alireza's experience in running great restaurants will create brand excitement for our customers.”
Leading the day-to-day management of the Singapore and Malaysia markets, respectively, will be local operating partners Kenneth Chan and Azmir Jaafar, both of whom previously held senior leadership positions at McDonald's and together possess over 40 years of experience. Kenneth Chan will join the Lionhorn DL organization as the operating partner for Singapore/Malaysia and Managing Director (MD) of Singapore while Azmir Jaafar will join the Lionhorn DL organization as operating partner for Malaysia and will continue in his current role as the market's MD.