PVH enters S&P 500 while Jones Apparel cheers investors

In Wall Street and after the market close,

apparel company PVH Corp. will replace Big Lots in the S&P 500 index. The move comes after PVH completed its 2.9 billion dollars acquisition of the Warnaco Group. In turn, Big Lots, which as a 2 billion dollars market cap, will replace PVH in the S&P MidCap 400.

"We are happy to announce the completion of the Warnaco transaction," said Emanuel Chirico, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PVH. "This combination reunites The House of Calvin Klein and enables us to leverage Warnaco's established operations in Asia and Latin America along with our strong operations in North America and Europe to fuel our growth strategies for the Calvin Klein brand."

PVH Corp. PVH announced Wednesday it has completed its acquisition of The Warnaco Group, Inc., which makes it one of the largest global branded lifestyle apparel companies in the world, with a diversified portfolio with brands such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, IZOD, ARROW, Bass, Speedo, Olga and Warner's.

"This transaction has delivered a significant premium to our stockholders and offers them, our businesses, our business partners, and our associates the opportunity to realise additional benefits from the compelling synergies and prospects of the combined company," said Helen McCluskey, the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Warnaco, who is joining PVH's Board of Directors. "I look forward to my new role in seeing PVH and its businesses develop." European markets ended higher on Wednesday while the Asian ones ended mixed. Japan's Nikkei closed down 1 percent one day ahead of the release of new GDP figures and the Bank of Japan's latest policy announcement.

In line with the bonanza that American apparel retailers are showing this month, Jones Apparel Group (NYSE:JNY) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st will be given a dividend of 0.05 dollar per share on Friday, March 15th. This represents a 0.20 dollars dividend on an annualised basis and a yield of 1.66 percent.

The apparel maker reported a fourth-quarter loss of 80.3 million dollars, or 1.06 dollars per share, compared to a 21.1 million dollars loss, or 27 cents per share, a year ago. However, excluding one-time items, earnings were 14 cents per share, beating analysts’ expectations of about 7 cents per share, reported the ‘New York Business Journal’. The owner of quintessentially New Yorker labels Nine West, Anne Klein and Stuart Weitzman, said revenue rose 9 percent to 971.9 million dollars. The stock traded up to close at 12.18 dollars a share Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, in India, Sai Silks IPO failed to impress investors as the initial public offer of apparel retailer Sai Silks (Kalamandir) has received halfhearted response from investors and was subscribed by 87 percent on the last day of the issue today.