McDonald’s Corp. is planning to issue the most debt in its history as soon as Wednesday, three weeks after abandoning a plan to create a real estate investment trust favored by some shareholders as a way to unlock value from its massive property holdings.

The world’s biggest restaurant chain may sell the $6 billion of bonds in as many as five parts, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because off a lack of authorization to speak publicly. This follows what was a record $4.3 billion issuance by the company in May.

"There is a lot of demand for global names with strong cash flow, and the McDonald’s deal fits the description, so there’s been a lot of enthusiasm," Jack Flaherty, a money manager in New York at GAM Holdings AG., which oversees $127 billion, said in a telephone interview. "The market feels much more positive about the company’s performance than they had been feeling, and yields are still attractive at these levels."

‘Favorable Conditions’

The company backed out of the REIT proposal after “serious consideration,” McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook said Nov. 10, instead deciding to focus on a turnaround plan that includes returning an additional $10 billion to shareholders by the end of 2016, much of it backed by debt. Two major rating companies trimmed McDonald’s rating after the announcement.

"We’re taking advantage of favorable conditions and rates," McDonald’s spokeswoman Heidi Barker wrote in an e-mail, without commenting on the size of the offering. "These issuances are aligned with what our senior leaders discussed at our November investor meeting."

The longest-dated portion of the planned issuance, maturing in 30 years, may yield as much as 1.75 percentage points more than comparable government securities, lower than the 2.3 percentage points the debt was initially marketed at, said the person familiar with the deal.

McDonald’s "is resorting to the customary ‘balance sheet optimization’ to boost earnings per share, the dividend rate, and the return of cash to shareholders," Carol Levenson, an analyst at Gimme Credit LLC, wrote in a note to clients. The firm has an "underperform" rating on the company’s debt. "Fundamentals are uneven at best," she wrote.

‘Aggressive’ Policy

Both Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s dropped McDonald’s credit rating one level to three steps above junk after the REIT announcement, criticizing the decision to return cash to shareholders with additional debt.

"Moody’s views this increase as McDonald’s maintaining an aggressive financial policy that will result in a material deterioration in credit metrics and limit its financial flexibility," according to a company statement.

Fitch Ratings revised McDonald’s rating to negative from stable, citing the company’s "aggressive financial strategy."

McDonald’s sold on May 18 $2 billion in a three-part sale that was its largest dollar-denominated issue since 2008, and 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of securities in its biggest offering in the single currency. The borrowings came two weeks after McDonald’s implemented the turnaround plan, an announcement that also drew ratings cuts from S&P and Moody’s.