“Globally, we plan to open over 1,800 restaurants, with more than 500 of these openings in the U.S. and IOM segments.”

In context

“ective tax rate for the year to be between 20% and 22%. Finally, based on current exchange rates, we anticipate currency translation will negatively impact EPS between $0.05 and $0.07 in the first quarter and between $0.18 and $0.20 for the full year. As usual, this is directional guidance only as rates will change as we move through the year. Transitioning to capital expenditures. We anticipate spending between $2.2 billion and $2.4 billion this year. About 40% of this will be allocated to our U.S. business, where we expect to have net restaurant unit growth for the first time in a few years. Most of the U.S. spend will go towards reinvestment, including the completion of our restaurant modernization efforts. About half of our total capital spend will be dedicated to new unit openings. Globally, we plan to open over 1,800 restaurants, with more than 500 of these openings in the U.S. and IOM segments. The remaining 1,300 new restaurants, including roughly 800 in China, will be across the IDL markets, where our strategic partners provide the capital for restaurant openings. We anticipate net new restaurant growth of about 3.5% for the year. We also expect our strong cash flow growth to continue in 2022. And after the CapEx spend I just talked about, we'll continue to convert more than 90% of our net income to free cash flow as we have the last few years. Going forward, our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged: first, to invest in new units and opportunities to grow the business, along with reinvesting in existing restaurants; second, to continue growing our dividend; and third, to repurchase shares. It's during times like this that the strength of the McDonald's system and”