Bulletin: McDonald's Corp.'s Fourth-Quarter Performance Was Weak, But Improved Over Third-Quarter

NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Jan. 23, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that McDonald's Corp.'s fourth quarter performance was weak, albeit incrementally better than the third quarter results as the sales and profit declines moderated. Nonetheless, we believe performance will be weaker than many of its competitors, which will report fourth quarter results in the coming weeks. The company's APMEA division saw the greatest magnitude of declines--a lingering effect of its supplier issue--with comparable-store sales down 4.8% and operating income down 44%. These results were moderately better than the respective declines of 9.9% and 55% in the third quarter. This trend leads us to believe there will likely be softness in that segment in the first half of

...NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) Jan. 23, 2015--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that McDonald's Corp.'s fourth quarter performance was weak, albeit incrementally better than the third quarter results as the sales and profit declines moderated. Nonetheless, we believe performance will be weaker than many of its competitors, which will report fourth quarter results in the coming weeks. The company's APMEA division saw the greatest magnitude of declines--a lingering effect of its supplier issue--with comparable-store sales down 4.8% and operating income down 44%. These results were moderately better than the respective declines of 9.9% and 55% in the third quarter. This trend leads us to believe there will likely be softness in that segment in the first half of 2015, but there could be a rebound in the second half. We note that both McDonald's Corp. and YUM! Brands Inc. have rebounded strongly in Asia after previous business disruptions. While sales performance was weak in the critical...

Bulletin