Mills to Restate Earnings

Mills Corp., Arlington, Va., has announced that it will restate its audited financial results for 2002 and 2003 and its unaudited quarterly results for 2004.The real estate investment trust said the restatements were necessary to correct accounting related chiefly to its treatment of equity in earnings from joint ventures, the capitalization of interest and certain other costs, and the timing of gains on the sale of partnership interests. It estimated that the adjustments would reduce net income by 16-20 cents per share for 2003 and 34-38 cents per share for 2002. Mills also estimated that the adjustments would increase funds from operations by 2-6 cents per share for 2003 and reduce FFO by 22-26 cents per share for 2002. "While the company has not completed its financial statements for 2004, it currently expects to report FFO per diluted share for 2004 between $3.93 and $3.98, as compared to its original guidance of $3.90-$4.00 per diluted share," Mills said. "The net effect of the adjustments, which together is estimated to have a positive impact on FFO for 2004, is expected to be partially offset by higher-than-anticipated asset writeoffs."