ATLANTA (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday as sales fell at its U.S. Kmart and Sears, Roebuck divisions, and said it would close additional stores.
The retailer controlled by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert also said it approved the buyback of up to an additional $500 million of common shares.
The loss was $146 million, or $1.16 a share, for the third quarter ended November 1, compared with profit of $4 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier.
Sears Holdings took a charge of 49 cents a share in the quarter tied to the closure of 14 underperforming stores in the quarter, and said it planned to close an additional eight stores and take charges in the current quarter.
The results also included a gain of 23 cents a share on Sears Canada hedge transactions.
Excluding the special items, the loss was 90 cents a share, compared with a loss of 49 cents expected by analysts on average, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue fell 8 percent to $10.7 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, fell 10.6 percent at U.S. Sears stores and were down 7 percent at Kmart, bringing total U.S. same-store sales down 9 percent.
The company said sales declines were driven by housing related departments such as appliances, a pullback in consumer spending and a shift in its promotional strategy for certain goods.
The retailer had a cash position of $1.2 billion as of November 1, down from $1.5 billion a year earlier and $1.6 billion as of February.
The company plans to repay $2 billion of borrowings this month under a $4 billion revolving credit facility, but added it expects to borrow on the facility again in January 2009.
(Reporting by Karen Jacobs; Editing by Derek Caney)
