Standard Pacific reports smaller 3Q loss

IRVINE, Calif. - Homebuilder Standard Pacific Corp. on Thursday reported a much narrower third-quarter loss as it booked fewer charges to write down land values amid the housing slump.

The company lost $9.3 million, or 10 cents per share, during the quarter that ended Sept. 30. That was a sharp improvement from its loss of $204.7 million, or $2.54 per share, during the same period a year earlier, when it recorded $368.4 million in impairment charges linked to declining land values.

Excluding restructuring and other special charges, the company would have posted a loss of $3.6 million, or a penny a share.

Revenue fell 18 percent to $327.4 million from $400.3 million a year earlier. The revenue included $57.5 million from land sales.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting the company to lose 7 cents per share on revenue of $284.6 million.

New home deliveries fell to 893 from 1,188 a year ago. The average selling price fell 9 percent to $302,000, from $332,000 a year earlier.

Standard Pacific ended the quarter with $523.5 million in unrestricted cash. That plus expected short-term positive cash flow and a reduction in debt that will come due in the next three years gives the company "ample liquidity to acquire land assets to support our growth when the upturn in the housing market occurs," said Ken Campbell, the company's president and CEO.

Standard Pacific shares rose 11 cents, or 3.5 percent, to $3.30 in late trading. Before the results were released they had risen 16 cents, or 5.3 percent, to close at $3.19.

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