Is this starting to become a weekly event?

Kroger Co. is the latest company to announce that it will restate its results.

The nation’s largest supermarket operator said it will re-release its earnings for 1998, 1999 and the first half of 2000 due to improper accounting at its Ralphs unit.

Kroger management said Monday in its press release that the restatement resulted from certain accounting practices that had been concealed from auditors and Kroger senior management. The intentional nature of the accounting activities requires earnings to be restated in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles, according to the release.

The estimated effect of the restatement, before one-time items and extraordinary charges, is an increase of two cents in earnings per share in fiscal 1998, a decrease of two cents per share in 1999, and a decrease of 1 cent per share in both the first and second quarters of 2000, according to the company. Previously reported sales are not affected, it added.

The accounting irregularities occurred before Kroger acquired Ralphs as part of its purchase of Fred Meyer Inc. in 1999.

“We were notified last September of the possibility that there had been improper accounting practices at Ralphs that had been concealed from auditors and Kroger senior management,” said Joseph A. Pichler, Kroger chairman and chief executive officer, in the press release.” This information was received just before the start of a regularly scheduled internal audit.”

The practices involved numerous accounting entries that were made to manage Ralphs’ earnings. At the end of each quarter, balances for multiple accounts were adjusted to levels that fell below expected audit thresholds. The financial executives who directed these practices are no longer with the company, according to the press release.

“While the events at Ralphs are disappointing, the improper accounting will have no effect on Kroger’s expected growth rate or cash flow,” Pichler said in the press release.

Kroger, based in Cincinnati, operates 2,354 supermarkets and multi- department stores in 31 states under names including Kroger, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Smith’s, King Soopers, Dillon, Fry’s, City Market, Food 4 Less and Quality Food Centers. It also operates 789 convenience stores, 398 jewelry stores, 77 supermarket fuel stores and 42 food processing plants.

Citigroup to Slash Costs

Citigroup is digging in for a tough economic environment.

The nation’s largest financial services company is planning to cut expenses by between $1 billion and $2 billion this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. The magnitude of the reductions will be determined by the performance of the economy over the next few months and how much Citigroup’s businesses are affected.

The company is mulling a mixture of curtailed planned investments and spending reductions, according to the paper.

Citigroup’s two largest divisions — the global corporate and investment bank, which includes the Salomon Smith Barney brokerage, and the global consumer business — each are considering spending cuts of $300 million to $400 million this year, according to the Journal. Citigroup Asset Management is said to be mulling cuts of about $100 million.

Planned Layoffs Nearly Triple in February

Is the layoff wave of 2001 topping out?

Announced layoffs nearly tripled in February compared with a year ago. However, the 101,731 announced layoffs were down 28 percent from January’s total, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The January total was the highest number of planned job cuts ever reported for one month in the survey’s eight-year history.

The automotive sector has suffered the most job cuts so far this year with a total of 57,656, including 22,697 in February. Telecommunication companies ranked second with 42,879 planned layoffs during the first two months of the year, while retailers were third with 26,733.

Further rounding out the list: E-commerce companies planned to cut 21,383 jobs so far in 2001, and computer companies including both hardware and software firms said they were cutting 16,242 jobs.

Since yesterday, a few more companies have announced planned layoffs. For example:

• Hill-Rom Co., a provider of equipment and services to the health- care business, said it will cut 200 jobs, or about 3 percent of its 6,300 “associates.” The company is a unit of Hillenbrand Industries Inc.

• Online entertainment network UGO Networks Inc. laid off 30 percent of its 130 employees.

• Egghead.com Inc. cut 77 employees, or about 12 percent of its work force.

• New Focus plans to cut 70 U.S. positions and furlough 260 direct production workers in training at its operations in Shenzhen, China. Prior to the workforce reductions, the company’s China operations employed 1,200 people, while the U.S. business had 900 workers.

From the CFO.com “Brief” Case

• OPEC next week is likely to cut output for the second time this year despite crude prices that already are close to the cartel’s $25 a barrel target, according to Reuters. “The possibility of cutting production is very, very high,” the wire service quotes a Saudi source as saying.

• Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is 75 today.

• DoubleClick said it has teamed up with Internet infrastructure company comScore Networks to introduce several new tools for measuring the effectiveness of online advertising. The first product to be introduced, called netScore, would capture Web transaction and traffic information with explicit customer permission. The tool allows monitoring of computers at home, at work and at schools. It also tracks international Internet users.

• Pfizer Inc. Chairman William Steere has exercised an option for 180,000 common shares valued at $8.1 million. He plans to sell the stock.

• Sunbeam Corp. has won final court approval of a $285 million debtor-in-possession loan agreement with its pre-petition lenders after resolving the creditors committee’s objections. Judge Arthur J. Gonzalez of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Thursday signed a final order approving the debtor-in-possession, or DIP, financing after finding it to be “vital” to keep the company operating.