Yum Brands Adds Icahn Disciple to Board

Yum Brands Inc. on Thursday further lowered its earnings guidance for the current fiscal year, less than 10 days after cutting the same forecast, and announced that Keith A. Meister, a Carl Icahn disciple, was joining its board.

Mr. Meister is now part of activist shareholder Corvex Management LP, which was bankrolled partly by about $1 billion from George Soros. The hedge-fund manager has led efforts to transform a variety of companies, including energy-pipeline operator Williams Cos., lender Fidelity National Financial Inc. and corporate landlord CommonWealth REIT.

Shares of Yum Brands, down 22% over the past three months, rose 2.4% to $70.90 in after-hours trading.

The owner of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell chains said it now sees its per-share earnings in the current fiscal year remaining flat or rising by a percentage in the low single digits. On Oct. 6, Yum Brands lowered its profit growth to a percentage in the low single digits, down from its earlier view of at least 10% growth, in part because of its operations in China.

Thursday, Yum cited incremental currency headwinds for the reduced outlook. The company issued the revised guidance in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yum continued to express concern about China sales, which it said remain "difficult to forecast due to ongoing visibility."

The company said it expects China Division same-store sales for the fourth quarter could range from flat to a 4% increase, with growth expected at KFC and a decline projected at Pizza Hut.

Yum also said it plans to report monthly same-store sales for China, in a move that counters a recent trend against monthly sales updates. Yum used to provide such updates but stopped with the results from December 2013.

Yum plans to issue an October same-store sales report for China on Nov. 12.

By Josh Beckerman