Limited to Close Up to 280 Affiliated Stores

Limited Inc., the nation’s largest specialty merchant, said it will close or shrink as many as 280 Limited, Express, Lerner and Lane Bryant stores and shutter five of six Henri Bendel stores. It took a fiscal fourth-quarter charge of $167.2 million, or 60 cents a share, for the moves. Limited also offered to exchange its 84% stake in Abercrombie & Fitch Co. for Limited stock. In addition, the company said it plans to sell its remaining 2.6 million shares in Brylane Inc., a catalog retailer. Limited plans to begin differentiating its stores by selling American casual clothing at its Limited stores and European styles at its Express stores, analysts said. Limited said fiscal fourth-quarter earnings before charges rose to $252.5 million, or 91 cents a diluted share, from $213.4 million, or 81 cents, a year earlier. In NYSE trading, Columbus, Ohio-based Limited’s stock rose $1 to close at $31.50.