...+ McDonald's new CEO today announced details on a range of measures to revitalize customer traffic, refranchise a substantial number of company units in 2016 to 2018, and pull forward total capital return to shareholders into 2015 from 2016. The return to shareholders of about $8.5 billion this year will necessitate higher leverage than we forecast and represents a more aggressive shift toward shareholders returns than we previously assumed. + While we see credit and cash flow benefits from refranchising, lower capital spending and cost reductions, these are largely offset by our current assumption that absent specifics on longer term financial policy, the company will return much of this cash to shareholders and credit measures will not return to the low-2x area. + We are lowering the corporate credit rating to 'A-' from 'A' since the company's credit metrics will now be below our previous expectations for the rating. + The outlook is stable, reflecting our view that credit metrics will...
