Earnings Reports for July 11

ByABC News
July 11, 2000, 11:38 AM

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Paper Giant’s Profits Triple

International Paper Co., the world’s biggest paper and forest products company, today said its fiscal second-quarter net income more than tripled on higher pulp and paper prices and cost savings fromrecent mergers, beating analysts’ expectations.

Profits in the three months ended June 30 rose to $315million, or 75 cents per diluted share excluding a $45 millioncharge after tax on facility closure and severance reservesfollowing its takeover of Champion International. This comparedto profits of $99 million, or 24 cents a share, in the year-agoquarter excluding extraordinary items. Revenues in the latestperiod rose about 12 percent to $6.8 billion from $6.0 billionin the year-ago quarter.

Analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial had forecastearnings of 74 cents per share in the latest quarter.

The company, which this spring agreed to acquire ChampionInternational for $7.3 billion in cash and stock, has benefitedfrom higher pulp prices and higher container prices in thequarter, analyst Mark Wilde of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. “ForIP, the big horse is paper, and in this quarter, the big horsewill be better than last quarter,” he said before theannouncement.

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Rite Aid Revises Results Lower

Cleaning up an accounting debacle thatdrove its stock down 70 percent, Rite Aid Corp. revised its 1997 and 1998 results lower by more than $1 billion.

The company, the nation’s third-largest drug store chain, alsoreported a wider loss in the fiscal first quarter and for theprevious year.

The restated figures, released after the close of marketsTuesday, gave investors and analysts their first real look at thetroubled company’s financial status since Rite Aid announced lastfall it could no longer provide reliable profit forecasts due toaccounting difficulties.

Rite Aid said its loss from the quarter ended May 27 came in at$238 million, or 92 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $44million, or 17 cents, for the restated first quarter of theprevious fiscal year.