US fast-food giant McDonald's Corporation reported Friday that its third-quarter profit surged 27 per cent year-on-year to 1.1 billion dollars thanks to strong worldwide expansion of sales, DPA reported. Revenues in the quarter reached 5.9 billion dollars, up by 7 per cent from the same period last year, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said. Company chairman Jim Skinner said there had been robust sales and earnings growth in Europe and Asia, while the company had won over new customers in the United States with an expanded menu and longer business hours. Third quarter earnings had also been boosted by the sale of the restaurant chain Bostn Market, contributing six cents to McDonald's earnings of 83 cents per share in the quarter. For the first nine months, McDonald's profits totalled 1.1 billion dollars, down from 2.3 billion dollars in the same period of 2006. The company's earnings had been hit by one-off charges of 1.6 billion dollars from the sale of the Latin American operations. Sales in the first nine months of 2007 reached 17 billion dolalrs, up from 15.4 billion dollars a year earlier.
