Brown Shoe Co. (CAL 1.59%) will be stepping more lightly in a few weeks, and with a bit more jingle in its pocket, after selling its Avia and Nevados brands to Galaxy Brand Holdings.
The footwear company on Tuesday announced the sale of the two brands for $74 million, confirming that it will be holding onto its Ryka and other brands. Brown intends to use the cash generated from the sale to pay down some of its $304 million in debt.
In a statement on the divestiture, Brown noted that it acquired Avia and Nevados, and the AND 1 brand, when it bought American Sporting Goods (ASG) back in February 2011. After selling AND 1 for $55 million, and including the proceeds from Tuesday's sale, the company says it will have made back $129 million of the $145 million spent on ASG.
The extra cash doesn't come for free, however. As part of its corporate "realignment" around core brands, Brown said yesterday that it will have to take a charge to earnings of somewhere between $0.28 and $0.33, which will impact the $1.22 per share that analysts were previously expecting it to earn this year. Subtracting out the charges, earnings of a bit more than $0.91 now seem more likely.
