The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 59

FJ EDITION www.pantagraph.com Pantagraph Wednesday, February 28, 2007 C3 RETAIL Carnival big money for Big Easy Federated wants Macy's as name n. i I i 1 7jr iff WUJr. I A f. t5 Spending still short of pre-Katrina level By Stacey Plalsance ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS The economic impact of the 2007 Carnival season was strong, if not quite up to the levels it reached before Hurricane Katrina, city officials said this week. The real financial effects of the two-week party that ended last week on Mardi Gras won't be known until sales tax figures are compiled in mid-March.

However, an enthusiastic Mayor Ray Na-gin said he thinks the 2007 bash brought in about 80 percent of the $250 million that economic experts say Carnival generated before Katrina struck in 2005. That means about $200 million was spent this year. "We had an incredible Mardi Gras season," Nagin said, touting the success of everything from hotel and restaurant business to police protection and sanitation. The city reported that the number of permits and licenses for vendors during Carnival more than quadrupled from last year, when Mardi Gras arrived just months after Katrina's flood waters receded. Nagin said restaurants reported business was strong, and hotel occupancy was at 90 percent or better both weekends leading into Fat Tuesday.

While hotel occupancy was strong last Mardi Gras as well, that was largely because thousands of rooms were still occupied by storm evacuees, said Fred Sawyers, president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association. "This year was pure Mardi Gras impact," Sawyers said. At the start of February last year, 22,000 of the area's 38,000 pre-Katrina rooms were usable. Of those, 14,000 were taken by evacuees and relief workers. The city is still down roughly 7,000 rooms, with 31,000 available.

"I think we're at a point now where we can handle pre-Katrina volumes," Nagin said. There were about 800,000 people in town for Carnival this year. That would be at least 100,000 more than last year's estimate, but short of pre-storm estimates of more than 1 million, Nagin said. The estimates are based on factors such as hotel occupancy rates and approximate crowd sizes. By Lisa Cornwell associatedprYss CINCINNATI Federated Department Stores parent of Macy's and Bloomingdale's, on Tuesday said stronger sales at established stores and lower costs drove fourth-quarter earnings 5 percent higher.

The retailer also announced plans to change its name. Federated, which is building a national department store brand under Macy's, said it will ask shareholders to approve changing its name to Macy's Group Inc. The company also announced a $4 billion increase to its stock buyback program and said it will immediately repurchase 45 million shares for $2 billion under the plan. "Most customers don't know what Federated Department Stores stands for, and obviously the name brand recognition for our new name is an easy decision for us;" Chief Executive Terry J. Lundgren told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday morning.

"We've thought about this for some time, but now that we've finished our merger this past year and 90 percent of our $27 billion annual revenues are coming from the Macy's brand, it just made a lot of sense to change the name of the corporation to Macy's Group Inc." For the quarter ended Feb. 3, net income rose to $733 million, or $1.40 per share, from $699 million, or $1.26 per share, in the prior-year period. Stripping out costs related to the integration of the stores acquired in the 2005 acquisition of May Department Stores Federated said earnings for the latest quarter were $1.66 per share, topping the com- Associated PressPAUL SAKUMA An exterior view of the Macy's department store in San Francisco is seen in this file photo. Federated Department Stores Inc. on Tuesday reported a 5 percent rise in earnings.

pany's estimate of $1.55 to $1.60 per share issued about three weeks ago. That figure includes a gain of 6 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of $1.58 per share. Analysts typically exclude one-time charges and gains from their estimates. Federated's guidance for 2007 was lower than Wall Street estimates, with the company saying it expects 15 to 20 cents per share in the first quarter, and earnings of $2.45 to $2.60 for the year excluding May integration costs of between $100 million and $125 million that Federated expects in 2007.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had been expecting 23 cents for the first quarter and $2.84 for the year. r- limn, rtiml Associated Press ALEX BRANDON A man works to clean up Claiborne Avenue near Orleans Avenue the day after Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Mardi Gras brought large amounts of revenue to the city, but its economic impact this year was still under pre-Katrina levels. Mayor Ray Nagin estimates about $200 million was spent this year. iiniinii'iiiiinrr.

rr.T. ii in .7 if You can add the superior cnergy-ellicicncy and simple, clean beauty of an Andersen gliding window-- professionally installed in your home for just $1500. Stop by or call llundman Lumber to find out Budget Committee because "we need additional allocations" for items like commod-' ity price supports, a permanent disaster program, restoring rural development programs and an extension of the Milk Income Loss program. House leaders, however, have imposed a "pay-as-you-go, tough system," the chairman added. That means new money must be found by cutting other programs, a game all committee chairmen are playing prior to the budget being locked by Easter.

Also, Peterson noted he personally dislikes every one of Johanns' ideas to cap program payments and exclude IRS 1031 tax exchanges from commodity program benefits. But, he conceded, he's told committee members that caps "are an issue that's going to need to be addressed. We can't just stonewall it. We can control it if it comes from us rather then the floor" during farm bill debate later this summer. The answer is pure Peterson.

Practical, political and straight. What's not to love? Alan Cuebert is a syndicated columnist who writes weekly for The Pantagraph. He lives in Delavan. His e-mail address is Aquebertworldnet.att.net. MONEY FROM CI New farm bill conservation spending, according to what Peterson was told, will rise 32 percent and food aid funding, mostly food stamps, will climb 46 percent, to nearly $77 billion per year.

The cut in commodity program funding was tough news, he continued, despite the fact that the "2002 farm bill had a life savings to the government that was probably the biggest of any federal agency." He's right. Even with the heavy spending permitted under the 2002 law, the tab, by most estimates, could have been $10 to $17 billion higher had commodity prices been in the tank during all its five-year run. Prices did tank part of the time so farm program spending was curtailed and Peterson's "savings" piled up. Yet it's an interesting argument that the budgeteers have no interest in. The savings, they quickly point out, came about for one of three reasons: Either the bill was too rich to begin with or Congress finally got farm policy right in 2002 or both.

Peterson vowed to lobby the jf more about this special offer from our Window AnderSen and Door Specialists, Come home to Andersen: undman Hours: 1707 Hamilton Rd, Bloomington Phone: 309-662-0339 M-F Sat RETAIL Wal-Mart expanding in China By Elaine Kurtenbach ASSOCIATED PRESS SHANGHAI, China Wal-Mart is buying a 35 percent stake in a company that operates Trust-Mart, a major Chinese discount chain, as interna-tional competitors jostle for position in China's rapidly growing retail market. Wal-Mart may eventually take managerial control of Taiwan-based Bounteous which operates 101 Trust-Mart stores in 34 major cities in China, the U.S. retail giant said in a statement Tuesday. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Newspapers last year speculated a takeover of Trust-Mart would cost Wal-Mart about $1 billion.

The acquisition, if expanded as planned, would vault Wal-Mart past its rival, Carrefour SA of France, in the number of hypermarkets giant stores selling discounted food and household goods in China. "Subject to certain conditions, Wal-Mart will acquire ownership control in the fu: ture," the company said in a news release. Foreign retailers are rushing to tap China's fast-growing economy, large population and expanding middle class. "Through this investment in Trust-Mart we have the opportunity to expand our presence in China, one of the world's fastest growing retail markets," Wal-Mart's vice chairman, Michael Duke, said in the statement. "This is an important step in bringing additional scale to our China retail business and enabling us to do what we do best serving our customers with improved service, high quality and innovative products, and lower prices," he said.

The statement said Trust-Mart stores, at least initially, would continue to operate under their own brand name. Bentonville, Ark. -based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has been seeking international expansion to make up for slowing growth in the United States, but it has had mixed success overseas. It pulled out of loss-making operations in South Korea and Germany last year but is seeking growth in Central and South America, China and India.

It is also eyeing a possible entry into Russia. The company's total international division accounted for about 20 percent of its overall net sales of $312.4 billion in 2005. -r and her parents brought her to the OSF Saint James Emergency Department where she needed staples to close the wound. Her mom said she didn 't even realize that Dr. Sudera had given her multiple shots to numb her scalp because he talked to her the entire time.

When he noticed that her shirt had gotten wet from cleaning her cut, he sent her home in a child's patient shirt. Sydney still dresses up in it and plays "doctor and patient "and talks about her adventure. "Dr. Szudera and the staff were wonderful. We live in a rural area and don 't have close emergency medical care and would need to drive to Bloomington otherwise.

"We had no waiting time and were in and out quickly, which was great because we were able to continue on with our day. "We had a great experience, so we II come back. Tanya, Syndey's Mother OS Saint Jamb John VV. Aibrecht Modern Medicine Hometown Hospitality Medical Center www.osfsaintjames org The best of both worlds. I.