Kuwait Food Co, which sells goods under the Americana brand name, reported a 10.4 percent increase in first-quarter net profit on Sunday.

The company made 18.1 million dinars ($64.4 million) in the first three months of 2014, up from 16.4 million dinars in the corresponding period of 2013, it said in a bourse filing.

Americana, 66.8 percent owned by the Kharafi family, one of the largest merchant families in the Gulf Arab state, could be sold after the Kharafis hired investment bank Rothschild to explore a sale, sources told Reuters last month.

The chairman of Americana, Marzouk al-Kharafi, later said he wasn't aware of any sale process by the majority shareholder.

Founded in 1964 in Kuwait, Americana is a publicly traded group of companies based in the Middle East and North Africa, with interests in restaurants and packaged food.

The company is a franchise operator of restaurants including KFC and Pizza Hut, owned by Yum Brands, and Red Lobster and Olive Garden, owned by Darden Restaurants. Americana also manufactures California Garden beans and Farm Frites frozen vegetables. – Reuters