Hony: China's new pizza man

Beijing-based private equity firm Hony Capital has agreed to buy British restaurant chain PizzaExpress for about 900 million $1.54 billion, the latest example of China’s appetite for iconic western brand names.

Hony bought PizzaExpress from London-based private equity fund Cinven, which had taken the restaurant chain private in 2007 for 1.34 billion $1.77 billion.

China’s rapidly expanding middle class is demanding higher-quality, safer and a wider variety of foods. Other Chinese purchases in recent years include Bright Food’s acquisition of Britain’s Weetabix cereal maker in 2012 and WH Group’s acquisition of pig farmer Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion in September, the largest...