Neiman Marcus Group

Neiman Marcus Group Inc. said fiscal its second-quarter profit edged down 3.2% to $39.9 million, or 84 cents a share, as expected, because of price cuts taken to spur sales. The upscale retailer also named Burton Tansky, its president and chief operating officer, as chief executive. Neiman said sales in the latest quarter rose 2.6% to $900.8 million. The company had lowered profit forecasts in late November as shoppers held off on buying full-price items.

Neiman Marcus Group Inc. posted an operating loss of $14.6 million, or 31 cents a share, for its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with a profit of $10.1 million, or 21 cents, in the year-ago period. The results were in line with analyst expectations. Sales fell 0.8% to $635.8 million, while sales at stores open at least a year fell 1.5%, the Dallas-based retailer said. Neiman Marcus also said it expects to post a first-quarter profit of 70 to 80 cents a share, with same-store sales down 1% to 3%.

Scandinavian Airlines System is paying $500 million in cash for a 40% stake in the Inter-Continental Hotels chain owned by Seibu Saison, a privately owned Japanese retail and leisure group . . . Phoenix-based America West airline asked the Transportation Department for permission to fly from Honolulu to Tokyo as part of its long-range plan to serve the Pacific basin. America West does not now fly to Honolulu but plans to be serving that city by the end of this year . . . Neiman Marcus Group said it has signed a letter of intent to build its first Neiman Marcus store in Ohio, scheduled for opening in 1992 at Tower City Center, a $400-million complex in downtown Cleveland.

In an unexpected move, David L. Dworkin resigned Friday as president of Neiman-Marcus, a specialty store chain that was recently spun off from Carter Hawley Hale Stores as part of the Los Angeles-based retailer's restructuring. Dworkin, 43, who had served as president of the prestigious Dallas-based division since joining it in 1984, said in a telephone interview, "I don't have any plans. . . . I'm really going to take some time off."

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group Inc. has neared an agreement to be acquired by two private equity firms for about $5 billion, sources familiar with the situation said Sunday. Buyout firms Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus won the auction with a bid that valued the Dallas-based department store chain at about $100 a share, sources said. The other bidders included the team of Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and a group that included the Blackstone Group and Thomas H.

General Cinema Corp., which has a majority share in Neiman Marcus Group, called off a deal Monday to buy remaining stock in the specialty retailer less than a week after the offer was announced. General Cinema said it took the action because a special committee of the Neiman Marcus board of directors had decided to withdraw its recommendation supporting the $14.40-a-share tender offer. "There are no continuing negotiations," said Peter Farwell, a spokesman for General Cinema.

Capitalizing on a white-hot luxury market, Neiman Marcus -- the department store chain whose name is synonymous with status shopping -- said Wednesday that it might put itself up for sale. Neiman Marcus Group Inc. said that it was "exploring various strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value," including selling itself, but that it might end up doing nothing. The retailer's stock jumped on the news, as investors considered the prospect of a bidding war for the firm.

General Cinema Corp., demonstrating a sharp sense of timing for bargains, said Tuesday that it would buy the shares of prestigious retailer Neiman Marcus that it does not already own for $240 million in cash. Chestnut Hill-based General Cinema, one of the nation's largest movie theater operators, now owns about 60% of Neiman Marcus Group Inc. but controls only 44% of the voting stock. It said it will buy the rest of the publicly held shares in a tender offer for $14.40 a share.

It worked last Christmas for the new 2002 Thunderbird, so once again Ford Motor Co. is teaming up with Neiman Marcus Group Inc. to offer a special-edition vehicle through one of the upscale retailer's seasonal catalogs. This time, it's the Irvine-based Lincoln Mercury division's Lincoln Blackwood--the luxury four-door truck that mates a Lincoln Navigator cab with a short, fully carpeted and wood-paneled pickup bed topped with an electronically controlled tonneau cover.