Finance & Capital Management

Walmart CFO Charles Holley participated in the Citi Global Consumer Conference this past Tuesday, and he had the challenge of appearing just one week after Walmart released first-quarter results. Given the timing, it would have been reasonable to expect that he wouldn’t have a lot of new information to share, and while he certainly covered a lot of familiar ground, there was one area that stood out.

Philadelphia — Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) announced that it has hired two new directors of retail leasing— Peter Elliott and Amy MacLaren.

Both will be responsible for the leasing of regional malls and retail relationships with key national tenants. 

GOODLETTSVILLE, Tenn. — Dollar General announced its plans to expand its operations to California in 2012.

The California announcement comes on the heels of the company’s planned expansions into three new states in 2011 — Connecticut, Nevada and New Hampshire. California would be Dollar General’s 39th state.

The company said it plans to serve shoppers in rural, suburban and metropolitan markets.

New York — Bill Ackman, the founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, has taken a “passive” stake in Family Dollar Stores, Bloomberg reported.  Ackman, speaking at the Ira Sohn Conference in New York, said he invested in Family Dollar Stores  because it’s “very reasonably priced” and may be acquired.

“It’s a good business, it’s done very well for a long time,” he said, according to the report. “It’s an attractive LBO transaction.” 

COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the first time, Big Lots is expanding its retail operations outside of the United States with the announcement that it has agreed to purchase all of the outstanding stock of Liquidation World Inc., an Ontario based retailer which operates 92 closeout stores in Canada. 

New Delhi, India  — A Thursday report by Bloomberg said that India will announce new rules for foreign investment in retail by April 2012, which will pave the way for Wal-Mart Stores and Carrefour SA to open stores in the country.

 “We are much further down the process than people think,” said Junior Trade Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in an interview with Bloomberg. “I think it is a huge opportunity” for India. 

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Fred's net income increased 16% to $9.5 million, or 24 cents per diluted share, compared with net income of $8.2 million, or 21 cents per diluted share in the year-earlier period.

The retailer said that total sales rose 3% to $484.4 million from $471.6 million for the same period last year. For comps, Fred's reported a 1% rise on top of a 2.2% increase for the first quarter last year.

Fred's gross profit for first quarter 2011 increased 1% to $137.9 million from $136.9 million in the prior-year period.

New York — Tiffany & Co. said Thursday its first-quarter profit rose 25% on higher revenue across all regions worldwide. The results beat expectations and the company raised its forecast for the year above current Wall Street estimates.

Tiffany net income rose to $81.1 million for the three months ended April 30, up from $64.4 million a year earlier.

Revenue jumped 20% to $761 million from $633.6 million last year, sharply higher than analyst predictions of $702.6 million.