Latest news with #McDonald'sCorp
The Star
3 days ago
- Business
- The Star
Indonesia tightens screening of foreign investors to ensure long-term commitment
FILE PHOTO: A security guard uses a metal detector to scan a visitor's handbag at an entrance to the Sarinah shopping mall, next to a McDonald's Corp. restaurant, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. Indonesia is conducting thorough assessments of investors' financial strength, technological capabilities and other relevant aspects. - Bloomberg JAKARTA: The Indonesian government has implemented a new policy to screen and select foreign investors planning to invest in the country to ensure the sustainability of future collaborations, Rosan Roeslani, minister of investment and downstreaming, said here on Thursday (Aug 7). Rosan, who also heads the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said the policy has been in effect for several months. He explained that under this new approach, his office will conduct thorough assessments of investors' financial strength, technological capabilities and other relevant aspects. "In addition to inviting foreign investors, the BKPM is also analysing the strengths of those entering Indonesia," he was quoted as saying by local media. According to him, such analysis is essential because investment is a long-term commitment, and the government wants to avoid potential problems investors may encounter in the future. To carry out these evaluations, the BKPM has formed a dedicated team, he added. - Xinhua
Mint
5 days ago
- Business
- Mint
McDonald's sees sales boost from toys, budget meals
(Bloomberg) -- McDonald's Corp. sales picked up in the latest quarter, suggesting that pop culture-focused collaborations and budget meals are helping to offset diners' economic anxiety. Global sales at restaurants open at least 13 months rose 3.8% in the second quarter, the company said Wednesday. That's higher than the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg. International markets led the company's growth, while the US was slightly ahead of expectations as Americans spent more per trip. The results ended four quarters of declining or tepid growth as the burger chain dealt with an E. coli outbreak, backlash against American brands in the Middle East and consumer unease about the economy in response to President Trump's trade disputes. Total guest counts around the world rose, Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski said on call with analysts. McDonald's stock rose 2.6% at 9:30 a.m. in New York. The shares had gained 3.1% this year through Tuesday's close, trailing the 7.1% increase in the S&P 500. The chain's second-quarter efforts to bring in customers included a meal timed to the launch of the Minecraft movie and a Squishmallows themed limited-time offer. In the US, the company launched chicken strips while trying to win over budget-sensitive diners with the offerings on its lower-priced 'McValue' menu, such as its meal bundle starting at $5. The company's turnaround in the US is stark, with sales rising 2.5% in the second quarter after slumping in the three months ended in late March. It also contrasts with a mixed picture across the restaurant industry. Rivals such as Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. and Pizza Hut are grappling with pullbacks as they struggle to convey to customers that their meals are a good deal, while Taco Bell US is still bringing more diners in buzzy new launches and cheap eats — a similar playbook to McDonald's. Second-quarter earnings, excluding some items, were $3.19 a share — higher than analysts' average estimate. Revenue, which consists of sales by company-operated restaurants and fees from franchised locations, also outpaced expectations. The overall second-quarter results show that McDonald's strategy is working and could lead to 'sustained' same-store sales outperformance compared to the rest of the industry, Citi analyst Jon Tower said in a note to clients. Ahead of the earnings release, analysts were expecting growth for McDonald's global same-store sales to accelerate in the second half of the year. Initiatives such as the relaunch of the Snack Wrap — which customers requested for years — were fueling the outlook. The US business should be 'stronger' in the fourth quarter than in the third, Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden said on the analyst call, in part because in the three-month period through Sept. 30 the company will go up against last year's successful rollout of the $5 bundle. McDonald's is looking to bring back low-income diners in the US, Kempczinski said, since they eat at its restaurants more often than middle- and high-income diners. 'This bifurcated consumer base is why we remain cautious about the overall near-term health of the US consumer,' Kempczinski said on the analyst call. The company will continue to market the Snack Wrap for $2.99 through year end, the CEO said. It's also looking at making its core menu look more affordable. When diners see combo meals advertised for $10 or more, that's 'shaping value perceptions in a negative way,' Kempczinski said. McDonald's also plans to test new beverages, including cold coffees and crafted sodas, at more than 500 US locations starting in September. 'A balance between value and quality is being struck with the $5 dollar promotion and premium beverage service targeting Gen Z directly,' Brian Mulberry, a portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, said in an email. (Updates shares and adds details from earnings call starting in fourth paragraph.) More stories like this are available on
Mint
03-08-2025
- Business
- Mint
A Dutchmans Life Shows Russias Path Not Taken
Derk Sauer, a communist turned journalist, turned capitalist entrepreneur, died this week at 72 after a sailing accident. If you aren't Dutch or haven't been heavily involved with Russia over the last three decades, then you probably haven't heard of him. But he was a hugely important figure for independent Russian media and a man who shaped hundreds of lives if not more, including my own. His is a story that very sadly encapsulates the road that wasn't traveled in post-Soviet Moscow, either by the West in the 1990s, when it mattered most, or by President Vladimir Putin since. When the Soviet Union collapsed, shock therapy — a big bang approach to privatization and ending price controls and other constraints on the market — was prescribed. The idea was for the free market to build a new economy from the rubble of the old. Technology and knowledge transfer from the West would be key. McDonald's Corp. arrived early. Energy majors including ExxonMobil Corp. and BP Plc moved in, hoping to develop neglected and new oil and gas fields. Car manufacturers from General Motors Co. to Mercedes-Benz Group AG were lured by the prospect of selling modern vehicles to those used to having to repair a new Lada before they could drive it. But Moscow also became a kind of Klondike for small-time Western would-be entrepreneurs. Many were carpetbaggers in search of a quick buck. They had the ethics of the Russian oligarchs and criminals with whom they worked to set up anything from casinos to gyms. They came and went with the money. Even blue-chip names like the Harvard Institute for International Development became mired in corruption scandals and left in disgrace. In the end, too little of worth was built. What worked for Poland didn't for Russia, and the result, famously, was a massive transfer of wealth into the hands of a few Russian oligarchs. The economy shrank by almost 15% in 1992 alone. Life expectancy for men fell from to 59 years in 1993 from 64 just three years earlier. Yet this familiar horror show doesn't tell the whole story. Some value was built in the 1990s. When it came to fostering a professional, independent Russian media — a key component in any functioning market democracy — Sauer made a massive contribution. He showed what was possible and what it took to succeed. Sauer arrived before the Soviet collapse to launch a glossy English-language monthly for the Dutch publishing company VNU. As more became possible after 1991, he saw a market for a full-service daily Moscow newspaper, modeled on the Paris-based International Herald Tribune. When VNU didn't buy in, he found investors and started The Moscow Times. He didn't do the usual with such expatriate newspapers, hiring a few low-paid reporters to add some local color to a daily collection of wire stories. Instead, he invested in hiring a sizable team — including myself and older, more experienced hands, including from the IHT and The Washington Post. He used these to train and edit a larger group of young reporters from Russia and abroad. By the time I left after several years as editor in 1997, we had some 60 journalists and editors publishing 32 to 40 pages a day. But this expat-led publishing business soon became a sideshow. Sauer's holding company, Independent Media, expanded to publish Russian editions of a whole range of magazines, from Cosmopolitan and Vogue to Playboy. When an early effort at a Russian-language business newspaper fizzled, he pulled in the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal to create Vedomosti, which quickly became the country's most respected and genuinely independent daily. Nobody, of course, was immune from the wildness of a market that had been liberalized without regulations or institutions in place to create a level playing field. It was a jungle that served mainly the ruthless and the connected. As the money rolled in, Sauer also had to acquire a form of protection, selling a 10% stake in his company to an oligarch. But when either the Kremlin or Russian investors pressured him to shut down coverage that would embarrass them — including access for cash and transfer pricing scandals, respectively — he checked the reporting and let us print. Most important was that he and his family stayed, committing to what they were building. When the first opportunity came to cash out, some co-investors in Independent Media took the money and left. Sauer didn't. He remained even as the market became more difficult and the tolerance of a free press that allowed his stable of newspapers and magazines to thrive began to disappear. After eventually selling the company in 2005, Sauer went on to work with RBC, a Russian news outlet that sought the independence and quality he had come to represent. When The Moscow Times withered in 2017, he bought it back to keep it alive, albeit online and in a much-slimmed form. Increasingly under political pressure, he left RBC and then, in 2022, the country. He helped The Moscow Times and other exiled independent Russian outlets, such as the TV channel Dozhd , to relocate to the Baltic States and Netherlands, as they too had to flee. They continue to write and broadcast for Russians on issues such as the war in Ukraine in ways no domestically based media can. What might have been if more Western businesspeople had come to Russia not to join the pillaging that in many cases passed for investment, but to actually build something? Or had lived by the rules of a regulated free-market democracy, the way Sauer did for journalism? If Western governments had tried harder and risked more? Or if international financial institutions had offered something better suited to Russia than shock therapy? And what if Putin and his vertical power system hadn't made fact-based journalism impossible? If the Kremlin had focused on developing a strong, diversified domestic economy, instead of carving up the nation's resources among friends and looking for expansion and glory at the expense of Russia's neighbors? Those are unanswerable questions, and by now, academic. Perhaps there will be another chance, another Moscow opening, forced by a future, younger generation of Russians at a time when the West has grown wiser and less arrogant. All that's clear to me today, though, is that Russia would be a richer, freer, less aggressive and less paranoid nation had it remained open to people like Derk Sauer, rather than force him out with the ecosystem he did so much to foster. This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. Marc Champion is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe, Russia and the Middle East. He was previously Istanbul bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal.
Time of India
29-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
McDonald's to sell eight Hong Kong retail spaces valued at $153 million: JLL
HONG KONG : McDonald's Corp is planning to sell eight prime retail properties in Hong Kong with a total market value of around HK$1.2 billion ($152.89 million), JLL, which has been appointed as the sole agent of the sale, said on Monday. The McDonald's outlets in the locations will continue to operate, JLL executive director of capital markets Eunice Tang said in a statement. In a separate statement, McDonald's Corp said it continually reviewed its property portfolio and that the Hong Kong sites were available for sale as part of that assessment. The fast-food company, which is headquartered in Chicago, said it remained fully committed to the Hong Kong market. Hong Kong Economic Times reported earlier on Monday McDonald's planned to sell all of its 23 retail spaces - valued at nearly HK$3 billion in total - in batches, but it would continue operating in existing locations as tenants, and the sale would not affect its operations in the city. McDonald's has around 256 restaurants in Hong Kong, the report said, many in rented spaces. In 2017, McDonald's Corp sold an 80% stake in its mainland Chinese and Hong Kong operations to a group that included CITIC Ltd, its investment arm CITIC Capital, and Carlyle Group for up to $2.1 billion. But the assets remain under McDonald's Corp. The sale of the eight retail properties is offered through a public tender that ends on September 16. JLL said it had already received significant interest from a wide pool of potential investors. All the properties are secured with long-term McDonald's leases, and they are available for purchase either individually or as a portfolio, it added. Overall prime street rents in the first quarter have fallen back to 2003 levels, as Hong Kong's retailers battle shifting consumer habits that have led to a wave of store closures.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Buy the Dip on This "Oversold" Blue-Chip Stock
While a third of boast double-digit gains for 2025, McDonald's Corp (NYSE:MCD) has been on the sidelines, treading water above its year-to-date breakeven level. And while most stocks frenetically rallied in the second quarter, MCD is nursing a 7% deficit in Q2. The upside is that this pullback has the blue-chip fast food stock testing a historically bullish trendline on the charts. MCD is within one standard deviation of its 320-day moving average. For the purpose of this study, Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White defines that as the equity trading above the moving average for 80% of the time over the past two months, and closing north of the trendline in eight of the last 10 sessions. Per White's data, nine similar signals have occurred during the past three years. McDonald's stock was higher one month later 67% of the time, averaging a one-month gain of 3%. A move of similar magnitude would have MCD firmly above its year-to-date breakeven level, an area that happens to coincide with the 320-day trendline. Another factor to watch is the equity's 14-day relative strength index (RSI), which checks in at 30 right now but spent all of last week around 20, firmly "oversold" territory and signaling potential rebound opportunities in the short term. Options are an attractive choice, per MCD's Schaeffer's Volatility Index (SVI) of 17% that sits in the 7th percentile of its annual range. This suggests options traders now anticipate lower-than-usual volatility expectations. Sign in to access your portfolio
