McDonald’s Corp. said Tuesday it has reviewed and decided not to pursue a Real Estate Investment Trust spin-off transaction, viewing such a deal as too risky. Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook told analysts at an investor meeting that the company is raising its refranchising target to 4,000 restaurants through 2018, with a new long-term goal to become 95% franchised. The company is also planning to return about $30 billion to shareholders in the three-year period through end 2016, and announced a 5% increase in its quarterly dividend to 89 cents a share. The company will finance $10 billion in cash returns by issuing debt. “After a thorough evaluation over the last few months, we are optimizing our capital structure by adding a meaningful amount of additional debt,” said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ozan. He acknowledged that the company’s credit rating would likely be downgraded as a result. The company said it expects positive same-store sales for all of its business segments in the fourth quarter and will target system-wide sales growth of 3% to 5% over the longer term. Shares rose 0.3% in recent trade, and are up about 20% in the year so far, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 0.6%.
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