VVO.L Share News (VVO)

(Sharecast News) - Africa-focussed Shell and Engen-branded fuel and lubricant retailer Vivo Energy has agreed to form a non-fuel joint venture to accelerate the roll-out of KFC restaurants in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, it announced on Thursday.The FTSE 250 company said the 50-50 joint venture would manage and operate the restaurants in the three markets on behalf of Kuku Foods East Africa Holdings, which would remain the local KFC franchisee.Completion of the transaction remained subject to standard legal agreements and regulatory and competition authority approval, the Vivo board said.It explained that the restaurants - 22 in Kenya and eight in Uganda - were located in shopping malls, city centre locations, and service stations.Kuku Foods planned to open its first KFC restaurant in Rwanda in 2019.The joint venture would enable a "significant increase" in the number of KFC restaurants in the portfolio in the coming years.It was envisaged that many of the new restaurants would be opened at Vivo Energy's network of service stations across Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, which would leverage Vivo's retail footprint, with more countries to be considered in the future based on market opportunities."We are delighted to be partnering with Kuku Foods to replicate the KFC joint venture model we pioneered in Botswana and Côte d'Ivoire," said Vivo Energy chief executive officer Christian Chammas."Kuku Foods shares our ambition to invest in order to grow the number of restaurants and give more African customers access to the internationally renowned KFC brand."This partnership further demonstrates our ambition to continue to offer more convenience to satisfy the evolving needs of our growing number of African customers."