Carter Hawley Reports Mixed Results

Carter Hawley Hale Stores, owner of the Broadway, reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $9 million, but salvaged a $17.7-million profit in its first full year of operations since the company split in two and took on a load of debt in a major restructuring.

With the overall picture affected by one-time gains and special charges, the Los Angeles-based company sought to highlight its $9.3 million in earnings from the continuing operations for fiscal year ended July 30.

Analyst David Jackson of H. J. Meyers & Co., a Los Angeles securities firm, said the operating results for the year were “marginally below expectations.” However, a company spokesman said the company considered its operating picture improved over the previous year, in contrast to a number of other retailers who fared worse in the last year.

Carter Hawley Hale’s year-ago figures were strongly affected by costs related to the restructuring. The firm last year recorded a $188.8 million net loss for the fourth quarter, which put its full 1987 loss at $178.7 million.

Carter Hawley Hale sales decreased to $2.62 billion in fiscal 1988 from $2.87 billion a year earlier. However, a spokesman said the year-earlier figure would have been $2.6 billion after adjusting results to reflect the sale of the John Wanamaker chain and two Broadway-Southwest stores last fall.

Fiscal 1988 results included a $30 million pretax gain on sale of an interest in a shopping center, a $28.5-million pretax charge for “operational and facility realignment programs” and a $10.1-million after-tax credit from a change in financial accounting.

The company reported interest expense of $35.8 million in the fourth quarter and $135.6 million in fiscal 1988, compared to $14.3 million in the year-ago quarter and $67.4 million in fiscal 1987.

A major reason for the high interest expense was last September’s restructuring, in which Carter Hawley Hale spun off its specialty stores. The stores--Neiman-Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Contempo Casuals--were put into a separate public company controlled by General Cinema Corp.

The restructuring thwarted a takeover effort by the Limited, which ended in December, 1986.

Carter Hawley Hale presently operates 113 stores under the names of the Broadway-Southern California, the Broadway-Southwest, Emporium Capwell, Thalhimers and Weinstocks.