Tuesday, Borders Group, Inc. (BGP), a retailer of books, music and movies, reported wider net loss for the first quarter, hurt by weak sales and non-operating charges. However, excluding charges, the Ann Arbor, Michigan headquartered company said, net loss for the quarter narrowed.
Net loss for the three-month period widened to $86.0 million or $1.44 per share from $30.1 million or $0.50 per share in the same period last year. Results for the most recent quarter includes non-operating, after-tax charges related to fair value adjustments, severance, depreciation and amortization totaling $70.1 million or $1.17 per share.
Excluding charges, loss for the quarter narrowed to $15.9 million or $0.27 per share from $30.5 million or $0.51 per share in the corresponding period last year. Two analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to incur a loss of $0.50 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Consolidated sales declined 12% to $641.5 million, from $735.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Total sales at Borders superstores, including Borders.com, were $536.7 million, down 10.7% from $600.7 million a year ago. Comparable store sales decreased by 13.5% at Borders superstores.
Waldenbooks Specialty Retail segment sales declined 19.9% to $76.9 million, from $96 million in the prior year period. Comparable store sales declined 5.5%. International segment sales totaled $27.9 million, down 14.9% from $32.8 million in the same period last year.
Excluding non-operating charges, selling, general and administrative expenses or SG&A, as a percent of sales, improved over last year by 3.6% from 28.9% to 25.3% helped by expense reduction initiatives, partially offset by de-leveraging due to negative sales trends. Expense reduction initiatives helped reduce SG&A dollar expenses by $48.1 million compared to the prior year.
First quarter capital expenditures were $2.4 million compared to $27.0 million in the year-ago period. Debt at the end of the first quarter totaled $325.9 million compared to debt at the end of the first quarter a year ago of $591.9 million, a decrease of 44.9%.
The company intends to issue second quarter results August 25
BGP rose $0.26 or 11.26% and closed Tuesday's regular trading at $2.57. After hours, BGP declined $0.19 or 7.39% and traded at $2.38.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com