Writedowns on options to buy land contribute to first red ink in a decade
By Paul Owers
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 3, 2007
Lennar Corp., one of the nation’s biggest home builders, said Tuesday it expects its first quarterly loss in at least a decade, more proof that the nation’s housing slump continues.
The Miami-based builder is predicting a loss of 88 cents to $1.28 a share for the fourth quarter ended Nov. 30, after a pretax charge of $400 million to $500 million to write off land the company had an option on but won’t buy. Earnings will be released Jan. 17.
Lennar also said it’s writing off deposits and preacquisition costs for land it has under contract. Its new home orders slipped 6 percent in the quarter to 9,606 and dropped 3 percent to 42,212 for fiscal 2006.
See full article here:http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-lennar03jan03,0,2669917.story?coll=sfla-business-headlines
