Springleaf REIT Inc. Closing 60 Branches Nationwide

This was a short article that appeared on Monday in Inside Indiana Business:

Evansville-based real estate investment trust Springleaf REIT Inc. is planning to close approximately 60 branch offices. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company says the move will affect about 400 employees.

There wasn't much else except a statement from the company:

As part of a strategic review of our operations, on February 1, 2012, we informed affected employees of our plan to close approximately 60 branch offices and immediately discontinue consumer lending and retail sales financing in 14 states where we do not have a significant presence and in southern Florida. The states affected are: Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. Customer accounts in the affected areas will be serviced by other Springleaf branches in those states or by other service centers. As a result of the initial branch closings, we expect to incur a pre-tax charge in the first quarter of 2012 of approximately $6.0 million.

Also as a result of the branch office closings, our workforce will be reduced by approximately 210 employees immediately, and by approximately 190 additional employees over time, but this number could change significantly depending on future events.

The closings are the result of our efforts to return to profitability. We continue to review our branch footprint with the objective of improving the efficiency of our operations.

In other words, business is bad and not expected to improve.


Bonus: Springleaf is now turning to brown