The ratings on Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's Corp. reflect Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' view of the company's business risk profile as "strong" because of its global market position, its strong operating metrics relative to industry peers, and consistent profit growth. Although we expect the company to achieve profit growth, we believe that credit ratios will remain stable, as we anticipate the company will increase debt to fund returns to shareholder while maintaining debt leverage within a narrow range. Accordingly, we assess McDonald's financial risk as "modest". This also incorporates the company's significant asset base and good free cash flow generation McDonald's operating results for the second half of 2012 were slightly weaker than we expected, which was primarily a
