Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. said Wednesday it would delay the release of its fourth quarter and 2004 results until April 12.
The teen apparel seller was set to release the results Thursday morning.
Wet Seal didn’t give a reason for the postponement. In February, it said it faced an informal Securities and Exchange inquiry into its second-quarter results from 2004.
Regulators have requested documents related to the 2004 sale of Wet Seal stock by Canadian lingerie retailer La Senza Corp. Montreal-based La Senza’s chairman and chief executive, Irv Teitelbaum, stepped down as Wet Seal’s longtime chairman in August to focus on expanding La Senza.
La Senza said in July it planned to sell its 3.1 million share stake in Wet Seal. The probe is focusing on the timing of the stock sale and news out of Wet Seal in early August.
Meanwhile, Wet Seal had some good news in February. Sales at its continuing stores rose 16.4% in the month. That’s a reverse from a year earlier, when Wet Seal’s same-store sales fell 12.4% in February.
The company is in the process of shuttering 150 stores. It said it closed 95 Wet Seal stores during the four-week period through Feb. 26. The company operated 463 Wet Seal stores and 96 Arden B. stores before the closures.
Prior to the closures, Wet Seal had about 5,000 workers, but said 2,000 employees would be cut in the store liquidations.
