Supervalu Hit With Shareholder Class Action

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story replaces a related item involving Supervalu that appeared on Progressivegrocer.com earlier today. The original story contained errors, including an inaccurate headline and incorrect information that two shareholder lawsuits have been filed instead of one. Supervalu has not commented on this suit. As a matter of policy, Supervalu does not comment on pending litigation.

A shareholder class action was filed against Supervalu on Monday in the Southern District of New York that alleges the Minneapolis-based retailer violated the federal securities laws on behalf of its common stockholders during the period from April 23, 2009 through June 23, 2009.
 
The complaint, filed by Manhattan-based Roy Jacobs & Associates, claims that Supervalu violated federal securities laws on behalf of purchasers of its common stock during the period from April 23, 2009  through June 23, 2009. The complaint alleges that the retailer "disseminated unreasonable highly positive guidance for the company's financial performance for fiscal 2010, in order to close a $1 billion note offering in May 2009. Indeed, positive guidance on April 23 generated such interest in the company it was able to offer $500 million in new notes and almost immediately increased the offering to $1 billion.
 
On May 7, 2009, the complaint continues, Supervalu "announced the completion of its $1 billion note offering, which was needed to retire existing outstanding indebtedness of the company which was shortly coming due. Then, after the refinancing was complete, on June 24, 2009, the company revealed that first-quarter 2010 earnings would be substantially below expectations, and that the previous fiscal 2010 guidance would be updated in light of an unexpectedly poor first quarter. As a result, Supervalu shares dropped almost 12 percent on very heavy trading volume."
 
Supervalu spokeswoman Haley Meyer declined comment on the lawsuit and told Progressive Grocer in an e-mail: "As a matter of policy, Supervalu does not comment on pending litigation."
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