Nordstrom gains balances Billabong's fall

Thursday markets closed mixed, leaving a bittersweet mouth for

investors following the quoted apparel companies, who saw how Billabong suffered the ups and downs of a potential takeover whereas Nordstrom surpassed Wall Street’s estimates.

Billabong International made it to the news on Thursday when it announced a net loss of 536.6 million dollars for the first half of their financial year, ended December 31, 2012. However, group EBITDA went up 12.9 percent to 57.2 million dollars. The Americas led the group’s growth, as they registered a 45 percent increase, while the Australasian region recorded a gain of 29 percent and Europe saw a 78 percent drop.

Net loss result was impacted by 567.0 million dollars of significant items, including 427.8 million dollars non-cash impairment for goodwill and brands, and 106.6 million dollars relating to non-cash write down of its investment in Nixon, highlighted the company in a communication.

Meanwhile, Nordstrom executives expect the company’s direct-to-consumer sales, Nordstrom Rack and upcoming stores in Canada to represent half of total sales within five years, Chief Financial Officer Michael Koppel told analysts Thursday. “There are still some opportunities, but the most important thing is the trend’s improving, so we’re encouraged,” Nordstrom said.

The company now expects the company’s fourth-quarter profit to hike a 20 percent to 284 million dollars, or 1.40 dollars a share, which was announced Thursday. Its earnings beat Wall Street’s estimates of 1.34 dollars a share. Total revenues grew 13 percent to 3.7 billion dollars.

During the quarter, Nordstrom repurchased 4.2 million shares for 219 million dollars.

Finally, in the Antipodes, the owner of fashion chains Just Jeans, Jacqui E and Portmans in New Zealand has increased annual profit more than six-fold, despite a sales slip off, reported local media. Kimbyr Investments - which also includes Jay Jays, Dotti, pyjama retailer Peter Alexander and stationery chain Smiggle - said profit for the year ending July 28 2012 was 4.5 million NZ dollars. Revenue for the year ending July 2012 fell 7 percent to 134.7 million NZ dollars.