McDonald's to move non-US tax base to UK

LONDON • McDonald's Corp said it would move its international tax base to the United Kingdom from Luxembourg after coming under increased scrutiny from European Union regulators over its tax arrangements in the small country.

McDonald's said in a statement that it would create a new international holding company domiciled in the UK that would receive the majority of royalties from licensing deals outside the United States. The move will also help to cut costs, McDonald's said.

The reorganisation comes amid a probe by the EU into what it says are sweetheart tax deals that smaller states in the bloc offer to multinational companies to lure jobs and investment.

REUTERS

NSE gets set for India's biggest IPO in 6 years

NEW DELHI • The National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) plans to file a draft prospectus this month for an initial public offering of about 100 billion rupees (S$2.12 billion), pushing ahead with the nation's biggest listing in more than six years, after its top executive resigned, sources said.

The share sale could value the operator of India's largest bourse at as much as 400 billion rupees. Existing NSE investors plan to sell about 25 per cent of the company through the offering, which will not include any new stock, the sources added.

NSE's offering would be the largest IPO in the country since 2010. It may compete for investors with cross-town rival BSE, Asia's oldest stock exchange, which filed a prospectus with the capital markets regulator in September.

BLOOMBERG

Ringgit slide overdone, may rebound: CIMB

KUALA LUMPUR • The recent slump in Malaysia's ringgit is overdone, and the currency may return to a more fundamental value once concern eases over the central bank's foreign-exchange administrative rules, according to the nation's second-biggest lender.

The ringgit has lost more than 5 per cent in the past one month, becoming the worst-performing currency in emerging Asia, after a central bank crackdown on trading in the offshore non-deliverable forwards market last month spurred outflows.

Global funds cut holdings of Malaysian government bonds by 8.8 per cent to 196.1 billion ringgit (S$63.13 billion) last month from October, the biggest decline since July 2013.

CIMB chairman Nazir Razak said in an interview at the Bloomberg Asean Business Summit that the ringgit's fair value estimate is at 4.10 to 4.20 per US dollar. It ended 0.2 per cent higher at 4.4222 on Thursday.

BLOOMBERG