It's the final closeout for Filene's BasementFilene's Basement, the century-old discount clothing chain, is expected to be liquidated after its parent, Syms Corp. of Secaucus, N.J., filed for bankruptcy. The company listed assets of $236 million and liabilities of $94 million, according to a statement filed with the Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Syms, which bought Filene's Basement in an auction for $63 million in 2009, said it plans to liquidate the business during the holiday season. In the 1990s, Filene's Basement opened five stores in the Twin Cities area; the last, at the Mall of America in Bloomington, closed in 1999.
Whole Foods outlook disappoints investorsWhole Foods Market Inc., the biggest U.S. natural-goods grocer, tumbled in New York after failing to increase its fiscal 2012 profit forecast. The shares slid 5.5 percent to $66.71 in after-hours trading after gaining 1.5 percent during regular trading. Whole Foods repeated a forecast that per-share profit in its current fiscal year would rise to $2.21 to $2.26 from $1.93 last year. The company also repeated in a statement that sales may increase as much as 15 percent.
Fatigue cited in Lloyds CEO's leave of absenceThe Lloyds Banking Group, partly owned by the British government, said its chief executive would take a leave of absence for several weeks because of exhaustion. Antonio Horta-Osorio, 47, who took over as chief of Lloyds in March, consulted physicians after experiencing "extreme fatigue," a spokeswoman said. Horta-Osorio, a Portuguese national who ran the British operations of Banco Santander of Spain before joining Lloyds, is expected to return to his post before the end of the year, the bank said.
MF Global commodity funds short $600MMF Global Inc.'s commodity customer funds have a shortfall of about $600 million, an amount that the trustee for the bankrupt broker-dealer may recover, lawyers for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said. At a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, MF Global's trustee won permission to transfer 50,000 accounts where customers of the failed brokerage have 3 million positions and over $100 million at stake, saying the move will help avoid liquidations.
Review site Angie's List plans IPO this monthAngie's List Inc., the consumer-review website, plans to raise as much as $114.3 million in its initial public offering. The Indianapolis-based company is offering 8.8 million shares for $11 to $13 apiece, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. At the midpoint, Angie's List would be valued at about $667 million. The company expects to price the offering on Nov. 16, Bloomberg data show.
Groupon cuts off orders for public sharesGroupon Inc. stopped taking orders for its initial public offering a day earlier than planned because of demand for the shares, Bloomberg News reported. The Chicago-based company planned to close the order book for stock Wednesday afternoon, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources. Groupon's shares are scheduled to price Thursday evening and begin trading on Friday. Groupon is floating only 4.7 percent of its total outstanding shares in the IPO.
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