Sears Q1 2009

From SEC filing • Net income attributable to Holdings’ shareholders for the quarter of $26 million ($0.21 per diluted share) as compared to a net loss attributable to Holdings’ shareholders of $56 million ($0.43 loss per diluted share) in the first quarter of 2008; • Adjusted EBITDA increased 73% to $359 million in the first quarter as compared to $208 million in the first quarter of 2008; • Gross margin rate increased by 130 basis points to 28.6% for the first quarter of 2009; • Reduced domestic selling and administrative expenses by $168 million (or 6.7%) during the first quarter of fiscal 2009 as compared to the same quarter in 2008; • Maintained a strong balance sheet with $1.2 billion in consolidated cash while reducing consolidated debt to $3.0 billion at May 2, 2009 from $3.5 billion at May 3, 2008; and • Today, we successfully amended and extended our credit facility to provide $4.1 billion in financing through March 24, 2010 and $2.4 billion from March 25, 2010 through June 2012, with the option to use existing collateral to obtain up to $1.0 billion of additional capacity subsequent to March 2010 through an accordion feature. First Quarter Revenues and Comparable Store Sales For the quarter, total revenues decreased $1.0 billion to $10.1 billion for the 13 weeks ended May 2, 2009, as compared to total revenues of $11.1 billion for the 13 weeks ended May 3, 2008. The decrease includes a $208 million decline due to unfavorable foreign currency exchange rates and was primarily due to lower comparable store sales. Domestic comparable store sales declined 7.4% in the aggregate, with Sears Domestic comparable store sales declining 11.7% and Kmart comparable store sales declining 2.1% for the quarter. The decline at Sears Domestic continues to be driven by categories directly impacted by housing market conditions (including the home appliances, lawn & garden and tools categories) and lower apparel sales. The decline in comparable store sales at Kmart was driven by a decline in apparel and was partially offset by an increase in sales of home electronics and the impact of assuming the operations of its footwear business from a third party effective January 2009. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Operating Income (Loss) Operating income was $128 million for the 13 weeks ended May 2, 2009, as compared to an operating loss of $8 million for the 13 weeks ended May 3, 2008. Operating income for the first quarter of 2009 includes expenses of $59 million related to domestic pension plans and previously announced store closings and severance, as well as a gain on sale of assets at Sears Canada of $44 million. Excluding these items, operating income increased $151 million and was primarily the result of a decline in selling and administrative expenses, partially offset by lower gross margin dollars. Total selling and administrative expenses declined by $242 million due primarily to a $107 million reduction in advertising expense and an $84 million reduction in payroll and benefits expense. The decline in selling and administrative expenses was partially offset by a decline in gross margin dollars of $150 million, which includes a $63 million decline related to the negative impact of foreign currency exchange rates on gross margin at Sears Canada. For the quarter, we generated $2.9 billion in gross margin as compared to $3.0 billion in the first quarter last year. While gross margin dollars declined, our gross margin rate increased 130 basis points to 28.6%. The increase in gross margin rate consisted of increases of 240 basis points at Sears Domestic and 70 basis points at Kmart and was mainly the result of improved inventory management. The increase in domestic gross margin rate was partially offset by a decline in gross margin rate at Sears Canada.