McDonald's profits rise, boosted by Chipotle spin-off

Fast food giant McDonald’s announced a 57 percent rise in its second quarter net profits, saying the spin-off of its Chipotle chain had helped boost overall earnings during the quarter.

McDonald’s said its second quarter net profits spiked 57 percent to 834.1 million dollars, compared with 530.4 million a year ago.

The burger-flipping restaurant chain said that translated into 67 cents per share.

Excluding one-time gains and losses, the profit amounted to 59 cents per share, in line with Wall Street forecasts.

McDonald’s said its profits benefitted from an exceptional gain of 10 cents resulting from the Chipotle Mexican Grill spin-off which was finalized in January. It subtracted two cents per share for tax charges,

„During the second quarter, we generated strong sales and profitability increases across all segments of the business and achieved double-digit consolidated operating income growth,“ McDonald’s chief executive officer Jim Skinner said in a statement.

The company’s revenues rose nine percent to 5.572 billion dollars during the quarter, compared with 5.095 for the second quarter of 2005.

McDonalds also said its board of directors approved „the disposition of the companys remaining interest in Chipotle Mexican Grill through a tax-free exchange of Chipotle shares for McDonald’s stock.“

It said, subject to market conditions, that it expects to file a registration statement relating to the exchange offer with the        Securities and Exchange Commission within weeks and expects the transaction to be completed by late October.

Source: news.yahoo.com