| Larger loss at Gottschalks
West coast department store chain Gottschalks Inc. (NYSE: GOT) of Fresno says it posted a net loss of 44.7 million in the first quarter, $700,000 more than the first quarter of 2006. Q1 net loss per diluted share was 34 cents compared to a net loss of 30 cents per diluted share in the year-earlier period. Same store sales decreased 0.8% for the first quarter of 2007. Total sales decreased by 1.2% to $141.8 million from $143.5 million for the first fiscal quarter last year. Gottschalks operated four fewer stores in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the same period of the prior year. "Our sales results and gross margin for the quarter were lower than we expected, primarily due to weakness in our home store merchandise, says Jim Famalette, president and chief executive officer of Gottschalks.
Portfolio Recovery Associates Closes on Expanded $150 Million ...
NORFOLK, VA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 05/07/07 -- Portfolio Recovery Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAA), a company that purchases and manages portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables and provides a broad range of accounts receivable management services, announced today it has closed on an expanded $150 million bank credit line. This credit line expansion is one component of a three-part program announced on April 24, 2007 to move toward optimizing the Company's capital structure. In addition to the larger credit line, this program includes the previously announced $1 per share, one-time special dividend and one million share stock repurchase program. The expanded $150 million line, which includes an option to set a 5-year fixed-rate tranche of $50 million, doubles the Company's credit line from the prior $75 million.
Disagreeable rate of employee arguments
While the hit television series The Apprentice shows its contestants going head to head in order to work for Sir Alan Sugar, a major study into workplace conflict by international law firm Eversheds has revealed that, away from the boardroom, workers in Cambridge are regularly at odds with each other. Despite 61% of the workforce in East Anglia believing that conflict is unhealthy, 35% in the region clash with their colleagues on a weekly basis - almost 5% above the national average. The research, which involved 1,000 UK employees, provides an insight into the level of conflict between staff. If you work in finance, human resources, travel and transport or in the retail, catering and leisure industries, then you are more likely to disagree with your colleagues than in other professions.
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