Hanesbrands Fills Portfolio by Buying Bra Company Maidenform

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE: HBI), a maker primarily of means underwear, will buy women’s bra company Maidenform Brands Inc. (NYSE: MFB). It is hard to say why the marriage will help either company, but Hanes shares rose almost 10% and Maidenform’s by 22%. The buyout is at a 23% premium to Tuesday’s close. One has to wonder why Maidenform’s management was doing such a poor job improving shareholder value.

On a fiscal basis, net sales at Hanesbrands increased 5% to $1.15 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with the year-ago quarter, and increased 2% to $4.53 billion for the full fiscal year. Fourth-quarter adjusted EPS more than doubled to $1.07, excluding bond prepayment expenses that reduced earnings per share (EPS) by $0.30. Each of the company’s business segments reported at least double-digit operating profit growth in the quarter. Full-year adjusted EPS increased 7% to $2.62

Maidenform’s results have not been as strong, which may be the main reason its board decided to sell the company. Net sales in the other channel decreased $5.7 million, or 21.0%, to $21.5 million for the first quarter of 2013, primarily from sales declines to a specialty retailer and from decreased program sales to off-price retailers, which were somewhat offset by higher liquidation sales. The net income for the first quarter of 2013 and 2012 was -$1.2 million and $5.8 million, respectively, and earnings results for the same periods were a loss per share of $0.05 and EPS of $0.25, respectively.

An M&A bailout? It certainly looks that way. Synergy? Of course.

Hanesbrands, by the way, thinks it will do unusually well. It said in its most recent earnings announcement that for 2013, it expects net sales of approximately $4.6 billion, operating profit of $500 million to $550 million and EPS of $3.25 to $3.40. The company expects a decline in branded printwear sales of $40 million to $50 million, with approximately half of the decline occurring in the first quarter, reflecting rationalization that started in mid-2012.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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