Tim Hortons Inc. and Burger King Worldwide Inc. are in talks to have the American burger behemoth take over the iconic Canadian coffee chain, creating the third-largest fast food company in the world.
The new company would have its headquarters in Canada, allowing the 60-year-old Burger King to pay a much lower tax rate.
The two companies, which would have a combined $22 billion in sales and more than 18,000 restaurants worldwide, called the takeover the “potential creation of a global leader in the quick service restaurant business.”
3G Capital, the majority owner of Burger King, would own the majority of shares of the new company, the companies said in a news release.
Tim Hortons and Burger King would operate as standalone brands with shared corporate services and “global scale and reach.” Tim Hortons’ headquarters is in Oakville.
The deal would be structured as a tax inversion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Tax inversion is an increasingly common legal manoeuvre that allows U.S. corporations to take on the nationality, and lower tax burden, of another country by buying a company there. The U.S. Congress has recorded 47 major American companies using “inversion” in the last decade.
U.S. fast-food chain Burger King is in negotiations to buy Tim Hortons, as a tax-inversion deal. The two companies confirmed the talks late Sunday night.
JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES FILE PHOTO

U.S. fast-food chain Burger King is in negotiations to buy Tim Hortons, as a tax-inversion deal. The two companies confirmed the talks late Sunday night.

By flying the Maple Leaf rather than the Stars and Stripes, Burger King stands to pay a 15 per cent corporate tax rate, rather than the 35 they would owe the U.S. government.
Buying Tim Hortons would also give the Miami-based burger chain a boost in the lucrative coffee market, which their chief rival McDonald’s has pursued aggressively.
Burger King has already partnered with the Starbucks-owned Seattle’s Best Coffee to make headway in the high-margin java business.
It wouldn’t be the first time a U.S. firm ran the coffee giant.
In 1995 Tim Hortons was purchased by Wendy’s International Inc. for $400 million. Even after it was spun off by Wendy’s in 2006, it remained incorporated in Delaware. It wasn’t until 2009 that it moved its corporate headquarters to Oakville and reclaimed its legal status as a Canadian company.
In recent years, Tim Hortons has expanded rapidly south of the 49th parallel, where it now boasts over 800 restaurants and has plans for 300 more by the end of 2018.
But Canada remains Tim Hortons’ meal ticket. Last year, two U.S. hedge funds announced they had bought stock in the company and urged it to curb its American blitz.
And the company’s most recent American partnership, with the U.S. ice cream company Cold Stone Creamery, has been fraught. In February, Tim Hortons announced it was pulling the dairy outlets from its Canadian restaurants at a cost of some $19 million in the fourth quarter, but keeping the pairing in its U.S. stores.
The bulk of the chain’s business still comes from Canadian customers, who account for 90 per cent of sales. Tim Hortons has over 3,500 restaurants in Canada, with plans for 500 more in the next five years.
The company has a market capitalization of about $8.4 billion.
Burger King’s stock surged $1.89, or 7 per cent, to $29 before the market open on Monday.

I'm guessing they'll be treated as two separate entities.

The new company would have its headquarters in Canada, allowing the 60-year-old Burger King to pay a much lower tax rate.

By flying the Maple Leaf rather than the Stars and Stripes, Burger King stands to pay a 15 per cent corporate tax rate, rather than the 35 they would owe the U.S. government.

Fuck, Burger king sucks. They will ruin timmies.

I wouldn't mind getting a Whopper with a double-double some days.

eddie is my dad? my mind is blown.

eddie is brown? my mind is blown.