JCPenney Chief Executive Mike Ullman is talking big again.
The embattled retail chief said Wednesday he expects the company will complete its turnaround in 2014, boldly brushing off recent worries on Wall Street that the retailer is at risk of going bankrupt this year.
“The most challenging parts of the turnaround are behind us,” Ullman said on a conference call after reporting a surprise fourth-quarter profit.
Ullman told analysts that recent scrambles to raise cash, including a chaotic equity offering last September that raised nearly $1 billion, won’t be necessary in 2014.
“We’re not burning another $1 billion in cash this year,” Ullman said, promising to rack up solid improvement in sales and margins as the chain lures back shoppers.
Separately, on Wednesday, Penney said regulators won’t pursue charges against the company regarding last fall’s equity offering. Some investors accused Ullman of making misleading statements a day before the offering was announced.
Penney shares surged 15 percent in after-hours trading, bouncing off recent dips to historic lows as the company eked out a fourth-quarter profit of $35 million, or 11 cents a share. It closed up 5.9 cents, at $5.96.
The earnings were goosed by more than $200 million in tax benefits and asset sales. Excluding those items, Penney narrowed its loss to $206 million, or 68 cents. Analysts expected a loss of 82 cents.
Still, some critics calculated that while Penney boasted it had $2 billion in available cash, $400 million of that came from unsold inventory, which ballooned 25 percent as the company squeaked out a meager holiday sales gain of just 2 percent.
Ullman is looking to clean up the mess left by former CEO Ron Johnson, who banned coupons and sales events with disastrous results.