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Lennar Reports Wider Loss And Bleak ForecastFiled at 7:53 a.m. ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lennar Corp on Thursday reported a wider fourth-quarter loss after home deliveries and new home orders halved amid a slowdown in the U.S. housing market, and the No. 2 U.S. home builder said it saw no signs of a recovery this year. For the quarter ended November 30, Lennar posted a net loss of $1.25 billion, or $7.92 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $195.6 million, or $1.24 a share. Lennar said its loss included a charge of $7.50 per share for write-downs of land values and write-offs for forfeited land options. Excluding those charges, Lennar lost 42 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates, though it wasnt immediately clear whether this compares to the 91-cent loss that was expected. "As we look ahead to 2008, we are not expecting market conditions to improve, and perhaps might continue to decline in the near term," CEO Stuart Miller said in a statement. To cope with the market downturn, large publicly traded home builders have been cutting back on new home production and land holdings while shoring up their balance sheets. Lennar reduced its debt by $318 million year over year, ending the quarter with $642.5 million in cash on its balance sheet. It said it continued to believe it would end its fiscal year in November cash-flow positive. The companys home-sale revenue fell 51 percent to $2 billion as the number of sold homes, excluding unconsolidated joint ventures, dropped 49 percent and higher incentives pushed the average sale price down 3.6 percent to $291,000. New orders fell 50 percent to 4,761 homes and the cancellation rate was 33 percent. (Additional reporting by Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore) (Reporting by Nick Zieminski and Ilaina Jonas, editing by Mark Porter) Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationRobert O. Anderson, Oil Executive, Dies at 90...Grace Will Settle Asbestos Claims... Tempus: Spanish practices... MBF sets its sights on a sharemarket infusion... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Lennar Reports Wider Loss And Bleak Forecast |
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