McDonald's would sell up to 21% of its company-owned restaurants

McDonald's said that it would like to reduce the number of company-owned restaurants in the United Kingdom and Canada.

 The move is in accord with longstanding demands by Ackman and his Pershing Square Capital Management, who has argued that the company-owned restaurants are less lucrative than the franchise business. The Oak Brook, Ill.-based company has been trying to decrease the number of restaurants it owns, allowing it to move resources into fast-growing markets like China and Russia. Next year McDonald's plans to open 125 new restaurants in China and up to 40 in Russia. According to CFO Matthew Paull, on a per-restaurant basis, Russia is currently the company's most profitable market. With approximately 31,000 stores worldwide, McDonald's currently owns about 7,000. Up to 1,500 of those restaurants are now for sale, likely to developmental licensees and franchisees. Earlier this year, McDonald's sold 1,600 restaurants in Latin America and the Caribbean to a developmental licensee.