McDonald’s financial statements…

Greggs’ financial statements…


Greggs' would be correct, since the name of the company is Greggs. But in McDonald's' case, since the restaurant is called McDonald's, the possessive would need an additional apostrophe, according to most style guides. (McDonald's's would be awkward.)




Then you have the companies that started out with an apostrophe and subsequently removed it and rebranded:

Barclays
Harrods

I imagine removing the apostrophe was expensive.


Yes. In Canada, we have a big coffee chain called Tim Hortons, named after a hockey player called Tim Horton. They got rid of the apostrophe because of language rules in Quebec, or at least, to avoid that potential fight. Some people (not I) think it is ridiculous that Quebec goes to such lengths to protect its language, but this conversation shows that there is a perfectly good English reason to get rid of the apostrophe, to be like Boots or Greggs, and apparently, Barclays and Harrods, to simplify modern and to appear more modern. Along these lines, I guess a language purist in Quebec could object to this modified possessive form (the s, but without the apostrophe), is not French either (it's more like German), but I don't think it will be a problem.