10:10 AM EST - Liquor Stores Income Fund : is urging investors in takeover target Liquor Barn Income Fund (TSX:LBN.UN) to take note of Liquor Barn's "weak financial performance over the past nine months." Liquor Stores also formally extended its acquisition offer until May 28. "We believe Liquor Barn's continued weak financial performance underscores the value of tendering to our offer," Liquor Stores CEO Irv Kipnes stated Thursday. Liquor Barn reported Tuesday it had a net loss of $559,000 on revenue of $31.6 million in the first quarter, ending the January-March period with 79 stores. In releasing its results, Liquor Barn reiterated its position that the Liquor Stores unit-exchange offer presented April 10 is "inadequate and opportunistic, as it does not reflect the true value and future growth prospects of the fund." However, Kipnes observed Thursday that Liquor Barn "indicated in its first-quarter press release that it anticipates that it will only generate sufficient distributable cash in the remainder of 2007 to maintain its current monthly distribution level. We believe even that tepid outlook is ambitious given that Liquor Barn continues to distribute significantly more cash than it generates." Liquor Stores, which is offering 0.53 of a trust unit for each unit of Liquor Barn, noted that in the nine months to March 31 Liquor Barn calculated distributable cash of $4.1 million while distributing $5.8 million. Liquor Stores Income Fund
units LIQ.UN:CA are trading unchanged at $21.60.
