Kirkcaldie turns to first-half loss on tax writeoff

Kirkcaldie turns to first-half loss on tax writeoff, falling sales

By Jonathan Underhill

April 28 (BusinessDesk) - Kirkcaldie & Stains turned to a first-half loss as sales fell and the Wellington department store operator wrote down a deferred tax asset.

The loss was $501,000 in the six months ended Feb. 28, from a profit of $563,000 a year earlier, the Wellington-based retailer said in a statement. Total revenue fell to $17.5 million from $19.4 million as retail sales declined 0.6 percent to $16.9 million and rental income fell to $553,000 from $2.4 million.

The retailer said it is still working through options for returning the net $16.8 million from the sale of its Harbour City Centre building after repaying $23.5 million in bank debt. Any distribution to shareholders "continues to be influenced by the retail operation’s results and by the timing of the receipt of the final instalment from the sale of the HCC," the company said today.

"The strategic review of retail operations likewise continues and it remains the main focus of the board for the coming months," the company said.

The board of the company decided that while it is considering options for the business, it should not make a permanent Chief executive appointment to replace John Milford, and has named Philip Shewell as acting CEO, it said.

The shares last traded at $1.68 and have declined from as high as $2.49 in May last year.

(BusinessDesk)

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