Burger King France to sell Belgian Quick restaurants

PARIS (Reuters) - Burger King France's owner has decided to put its Quick burger chain in Belgium and Luxembourg up for sale, a source close to the deal said on Wednesday.

Burger King France, owned by French hotels and restaurants firm Group Bertrand, bought the Quick chain last year intending to rebrand its 340 outlets in France as Burger Kings while keeping the Quick brand in Belgium and Luxembourg.

The source said the aim was to sell, by mid-year, Quick's Belgian and Luxembourg business which has about 100 restaurants with about 200 million euros (156.4 million pounds) in revenue last year.

Group Bertand, French hotels and restaurants, had no immediate comment.

Investment bank Lazard (LAZ.N) has been given the mandate to handle the deal.

Standard & Poor's said on Wednesday it was revising the outlook for its B- rating on Quick's debt to negative on concerns that the rebranding might not generate sufficient cashflow to respect its commitments under its debt covenants.

(Reporting by Mathieu Protard; Additional reporting by Raphael Bloch and Julien Ponthus; Writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)