Uniwide trims 6-month loss to P94M

Cash-strapped retailer Uniwide Holdings Inc. trimmed its losses in the first six months of the year to P93.97 million from P141.13 million in the same period last year.

In a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Uniwide said while net sales fell to P386.64 million from P1.67 billion, the company reported other income of P31.05 million as against other expenses of P33.43 million.

Cost of sales, however, declined to P342.26 million from P1.47 billion a year earlier. Total operating expenses likewise decreased to P169.41 million from P297.35 million.

Despite the continued losses, Uniwide said its rehabilitation is still feasible as it still has available assets to cover settlement of liabilities to unsecured creditors.

As of end-June this year, Uniwide was able to reduce its total debts to P3.16 billion from P7.52 billion.

Uniwide said it intends to maximize leasable areas in all operating stores which continue to cater primarily to the C and D markets.

It also plans to increase sales through aggressive marketing as well as improve margins on dry good items.

Uniwide earlier said it received feelers from several groups that have expressed interest to acquire the warehouse club operator.

It was earlier reported that businessman Lucio Co, owner of the Puregold chain of duty-free stores, is among those that have signified interest in taking over Uniwide.

Some analysts said Uniwide could still be a good target since it has been slowly recovering from its deep financial problems.

The remaining debts of the discount warehouse club operator is owed to Land Bank of the Philippines (P39.15 million), Equitable-PCI Bank (P493.42 million), Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (P471.42 million), Global Bank (P50.51 million), Allied Bank (P360.65 million), Philippine National Bank (P832.96 million), ING Bank (P171.29 million), and a syndicate of local banks (P737 million).

Under its amended rehabilitation plan, Uniwide intends to settle debts to unsecured creditors through the conversion of 50 percent of the unsecured debts into 15-year convertible notes that are redeemable anytime at the option of the retail firm.

The other half of the unsecured debts shall be restructured into a 10-year loan with zero interest, a grace period of three years and whose principal payment will start only on the fourth year. The restructured debts will be paid from the cash flow from retail operations.

In June 1999, the Uniwide group was forced to file a petition for suspension of debt payments with the court as a result of the economic crunch and a failed diversification into other non-related business ventures.