Wendy's International Inc. said late Thursday it will speed up the process to unload its remaining stake in the Tim Hortons coffee and donut franchise.

With falling profits, the company has been pressured by key shareholders to unload its Timmy's shares, and announced it will do so by the end of the year.

An initial public sale of 29 million shares is set for March, with shares expected to sell for between $21 and $23.

The rest of the shares will be spun off by Dec. 31, and the company announced it will investigate ways of returning extra cash to shareholders.

The move is expected to bring in $600 million for Wendy's, with most of that money expected to go towards debts it owes its parent company.

In 2005, Wendy's revenue rose four per cent to $3.78 billion from $3.64 billion in 2004, but sales at Wendy's restaurants that have been open one year or longer fell 3.7 per cent for all of 2005. It was the first such decline in 18 years.