Financial/Banking

NEW YORK - Gracious Home, a home goods retailer with stores in New York City's Upper West and Upper East side neighborhoods, as well as online at gracioushome.com, was acquired by Americas Retail Flagship Fund LLC. The company under its prior ownership had filed for bankruptcy protection in August.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Borders Group reported that sales for the third quarter were $470.9 million, which is a decrease of 17.6% from the same period a year ago. On a comparable-store sales basis, sales declined 12.6%, driven primarily by the adult trade category, according to the company. Sales were also negatively impacted by Borders.com, which saw a third quarter decrease of 8.6% over the prior year to $12.5 million.

Smyrna, Ga. -- Westchester, Ill.-based Tri-Land Properties announced that it has received zoning and financing approval for The Crossings at Four Corners in Smyrna, Ga. Tri-Land has sold eight acres of the project to Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kroger Co.

Cole Taylor, a Chicago based lender, is providing the construction financing for the project.

Montvale, N.J. -- A report Friday said that Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. may file for bankruptcy in the coming days to restructure debt.

Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg reported that a filing to reorganize under court protection may come as soon as this weekend. A&P hired law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP to represent it in negotiations with creditors and in any Chapter 11 proceeding, according to the report.

Minneapolis -- Supervalu says Sherry Smith has been named the grocery operator's new CFO.

Smith, 49, has been working as the company's interim CFO and will assume her new role immediately. She joined Supervalu in 1987 and has held a variety of positions at the company, including serving as its senior VP finance for eight years.
 

Austin, Texas -- Whole Foods Market said Wednesday that its board approved a quarterly cash dividend of 10 cents per share reinstating the quarterly payment after more than two years with none. The dividend will be payable Jan. 20 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 10.

John Elstrott, chairman of Whole Foods' board, said in a statement that the decision to bring back the dividend stems from the company's strong financial position and outlook.

New York City -- After five consecutive months of year-over-year declines, overall average tickets grew 0.4% in November, after declining 1.7% in October, according to  First Data. The company’s SpendTrend analysis for November 2010 includes same-store consumer spending via credit, signature debit, PIN debit and EBT cards at U.S. merchant locations, which are compared with November 2009.

As 2010 draws to a close and interest in all things mobile reaches a fever pitch, Juniper Research has drawn up a list of predictions for the mobile and wireless industry for 2011. (Based in the United Kingdom, Juniper specializes in the identification and appraisal of high-growth opportunities across the mobile telecoms, content, and applications sectors.).

Here is the firm’s Top 5 predictions: