NEW YORK The Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group Inc., operator of 13 upscale restaurants including nine namesake steakhouse locations, widened its net loss for the fourth quarter and for the full year ended Jan. 1, mainly because of impairment charges for now closed restaurants, the company reported.
For the fourth quarter, Smith & Wollensky posted a loss of $3.5 million, or 40 cents per share, versus a net loss of $397,000, or 4 cents per share, a year-earlier. Latest-quarter total restaurant sales rose 7.5 percent to $36.2 million, aided by a same-store sales gain of 3.9 percent.
Impairment charges in the latest quarter included $1.8 million for the namesake unit in New Orleans, $3.2 million for the namesake unit in Dallas and $740,000 for the company's Cité restaurant in New York. Excluding those charges, as well as year-earlier impairment charges totaling about $1.1 million, Smith & Wollensky would have earned $2.3 million, or 27 cents per share, in the fiscal 2006 quarter, versus earnings of $667,000, or 7 cents per share, in the fiscal 2005 quarter.
The company's loss for all of 2006 totaled $4.2 million, or 49 cents per share, compared with a loss of $3.1 million, or 33 cent per share, in 2005. The net loss for 2006 included impairment charges of $6.6 million, the company reported. Total restaurant sales decreased 0.5 percent to $124.8 million. Same-store sales increased 1.8 percent.
The Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group currently is being pursued by both Landry's Restaurants Inc. and the Patina Restaurant Group LLC, both of which have tendered buyout offers. The latest bid, by Landry's, totaled about $84 million.
