Heath E. Combs — Furniture Today
HIGH POINT — Sun Capital has increased its stake in Furniture Brands International to 8.9%, the company said in a filing this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Boca Raton, Fla.-based investment fund said in the Sept. 19 filing that it owns a little over 4.3 million shares of Furniture Brands stock.

Sun Capital purchased 250,000 share of common stock at $9.86 on Sept. 17 and 450,000 shares on Sept. 19 at $9.74, its largest single purchase of a block of FBI shares.

FBI’s close below $10 on Tuesday was its lowest point since the spring of 1996, the year the company’s name was changed from Interco to Furniture Brands International.

The name change occurred several months after Interco purchased Thomasville in late 1995, adding it to the Broyhill and Lane operations. Years later, the company acquired Henredon, Drexel-Heritage and Maitland-Smith.

Interco emerged from bankruptcy in August 1992 and spun off its Converse and Florsheim shoe companies in 1994.

Its stock declined this week after FBI Chairman and CEO Mickey Holliman said third quarter net sales would be down about 12% and that the company would post a loss of 19 cents to 23 cents per share for the period.

The company’s stock price peaked at $42.30 on May 2, 2002, but took a sharp decline to hit $19.02 by Oct. 2 that year. In early March 2004 it rallied to $34.97 before beginning another descent.

Sun Capital has gradually been building an ownership stake in FBI this year. Rumors have circled the industry for months that FBI or one of its companies was a Sun acquisition target.

In March, Sun Capital reported its first major stake in Furniture Brands, disclosing that it had bough 2.4 million shares, or 5% of the outstanding stock, between Jan. 10 and March 1 for prices ranging from $15.72 and $16.73.

Earlier this week, Sun Capital made a bid for St. Louis-based branded apparel marketer Kellwood Co.