Sears suffers 3Q loss on weak US, Kmart sales

[December 02, 2008]  HOFFMAN ESTATES (AP) -- Sears Holdings Corp. said Tuesday hefty charges and weak results at its U.S. department stores and Kmart locations drove it to post a much wider-than-expected third-quarter loss, and the retailer says it will post a $21 million pretax charge for store closings in the fourth quarter.

The Hoffman Estates-based company, led by financier Edward Lampert, also boosted its stock buyback plan by $500 million. That's in addition to the $72 million worth of shares currently available for repurchase under the company's existing plan.

Sears reported a loss of $146 million, or $1.16 per share, compared with year-ago profit of $4 million, or 3 cents per share. Excluding a hefty charge related to 14 store closings and gains on Sears Canada hedges, Sears posted a loss of 90 cents per share in the latest period.

Revenue dropped 8 percent to $10.66 billion from $11.62 billion on lower domestic same-store sales.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a much smaller loss of 49 cents per share on higher revenue of $10.93 billion.

Sears said it will take a pretax charge of $21 million in the fourth quarter, related to the closing of eight underperforming stores, which was announced last month.

[Associated Press]

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