<div id="readability-page-1"><div>Jan 1 (Reuters) - India's KFC and Pizza Hut operators Sapphire Foods and Devyani International said on Thursday they will merge in a $934 million deal, creating a fast-food franchisee powerhouse in the world's most populous country. The deal comes as India's fast-food franchisees grapple with higher costs, slowing same-store sales and margin pressure, while facing stiff competition from McDonald's and Domino's Pizza operators in a market where consumers are cutting back on non-essential spending. Devyani will issue 177 shares for every 100 shares of Sapphire as part of the deal and it expects annual synergies of 2.1 billion to 2.25 billion rupees ($23.34 million to $25.01 million) from the second full year of operations of the combined entity. The companies, partners of Yum Brands, run more than 3,000 outlets across India and overseas, including KFC and Pizza Hut dine-in restaurants and compete with the Indian operators of McDonald's and Domino's Pizza chains - Westlife Foodworld and Jubilant Foodworks. Both the KFC and Pizza Hut franchisees in India operate at a net loss, making scalability a challenge, said Akshay D'Souza, an independent consumer goods consultant. &#34;With the single entity, if they are able to unlock even half of the expected synergies, we will be seeing a profitable enterprise... where they can control costs better.&#34; In the quarter ended September, Sapphire's consolidated total costs rose 10% on-year to 7.68 billion rupees, while Devyani's spends rose 14.4% to 14.08 billion rupees. Devyani reported a net loss of 219 million rupees for the quarter ended September 30, reversing a profit of 170,000 rupees a year earlier, while Sapphire posted a wider consolidated net loss of 127.7 million rupees, compared with a loss of 30.4 million rupees a year ago. ($1 = 89.9625 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee, Nishit Navin and Nandan Mandayam, writing by Chandini Monnappa; Editing by Howard Goller and Ros Russell)By Hritam Mukherjee and Nishit Navin</div></div>

百胜餐饮

印度的肯德基和必胜客运营商 Sapphire Foods 和 Devyani International 将以 9.34 亿美元的交易合并，形成一个重要的快餐特许经营企业。此次合并旨在应对成本上升和来自麦当劳和多米诺的竞争等挑战。Devyani 将向 Sapphire 的股东发行股票，并预计每年可实现约 2334 万至 2501 万美元的协同效应。两家公司目前均处于净亏损状态，但合并可能通过更好的成本控制改善盈利能力

印度的肯德基和必胜客运营商将以 9.34 亿美元的交易金额进行合并