McDonald’s Malaysia franchise ops in Saudi’s Lionhorn group

February 15, 2020

The McDonald’s operations in Malaysia are now in the hands of Saudi Arabia’s Lionhorn Pte Ltd. Lionhorn’s owners, Sheik Fahd and Abdulrahman Alireza bought over the rights to McDonald’s Malaysia and Singapore in December 2016. Reuters reported that a sum of US$400 million was paid for the acquisition. Lionhorn’s owners already operate McDonald’s successfully in Saudi Arabia. Azmir Jaafar is the local Managing Director. Since the takeover from McDonald’s Corporation, Lionhorn has invested substantial sums to expand the chain in this country by opening new stores and remodelling existing ones.

McDonald’s franchise was first brought to Malaysia in the early 1980s by Tan Sri Dato’ Vincent Tan of the Berjaya Corporation Group in a joint venture under the name Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd. The first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur in 1982. The chain was managed by Mohamad Shah bin Tan Sri Abdul Kadir.  After more than 20 years, the franchise reverted back to McDonald’s Corporation which directly ran the Malaysian operations until the transfer of rights to Lionhorn.

When McDonald’s Corporation was managing the Malaysian operations, the franchise was open to Malaysians to operate a McDonald’s restaurant in selected areas. That option does not appear to be available now.

Read more about McDonald’s at www.mcdonalds.com.my