A Russian businessman will buy all the 67 McDonald's restaurants in Romania with some EUR 50 million.

He will keep the brand and will pay the US parent group a franchise tax, according to a source close to the company’s management, cited by local Economica.net.

Daniel Boaje, McDonald's Romania general director, said that this has been prepared since summer, but for now it is only speculation, and declined to further comment.

The McDonald's restaurant chain in Romania has an annual turnover of EUR 120 million. Half of the units are in Bucharest. Two of these have the highest sales in the country, EUR 5 million a year each, namely McDonald's Dristor and McDonald's Unirii.

The parent company’s revenues amounted last year to USD 27.4 billion (EUR 24.8 bln), down 2% over 2013. The net income reached USD 4.7 billion (EUR 4.2 bln), down 15% compared to 2013.

editor@romania-insider.com