Mills Corp. Profit Flat in Fourth Quarter, Up in '94
Mills Corp., the District-based company that owns Potomac Mills and similar factory outlet shopping centers around the country, reported that operating results for the fourth quarter were flat because rising interest rates canceled out higher income from its malls.</br></br>For the year, the company said, operating results were up because rents it charges in its malls rose and because it expanded Potomac Mills.</br></br>Most real estate companies such as Mills report two sets of results -- standard net income and funds from operations, a measure that gauges operating results by removing the accounting effects of items such as depreciation and amortization. Mills, however, did not release standard net income figures in a way that would allow comparisons among its operating periods.</br></br>For calendar 1994, a period that included four months before the company went public, funds from operations on a pro forma basis came to $54.6 million ($1.66 per share), up 7 percent from $51.03 million ($1.55).</br></br>In the fourth quarter, the measure was $14.8 million (45 cents), compared with $14.7 million (45 cents) in the pro forma period a year earlier.