McDonald’s rose the most in nine months after activist investor Bill Ackman said the world’s largest restaurant chain could be managed better, fuelling speculation that he’ll buy a stake and push for changes.
Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund was the second-largest investor in Burger King Worldwide, said that McDonald’s could learn from its smaller rival. He declined to comment on whether he was taking a stake in McDonald’s.
“If McDonald’s were run like Burger King, the stock would go up a lot,” Ackman said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
McDonald’s welcomes investment in the company and is focused on boosting shareholder value by improving its menu and service while creating a “more nimble US organization,” Becca Hary, a spokeswoman, said today. She declined to comment on whether McDonald’s had heard from Ackman.
Burger King completed its acquisition of Canadian coffee-shop chain Tim Hortons this month, becoming the world’s third-largest fast-food company and changing its name to Restaurant Brands International. Ackman said that the company’s new name signals it is building a restaurant conglomerate that may make more acquisitions.
Since being purchased by Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital in a $4 billion leveraged buyout in 2010, Burger King has sold off all but a handful of its company-owned restaurants to reduce costs. There are about 13,900 Burger King restaurants worldwide, and more than 99 per cent are franchised. By contrast, about 90 per cent of McDonald’s 14,200 US locations are franchised.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
