NEW YORK - Georgia-Pacific Corporation is announcing Thursday that its second-quarter net income came to $87 million, or 38 cents a share, helped by consumer products. <br>
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That was up from $29 million, or 13 cents a share, a year earlier. <br>
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The latest results include severance and business-separation costs of $17 million, or seven cents a share. <br>
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Excluding items, income was $104 million, or 45 cents a share. That's a penny a share better than the Thomson First Call average of analysts' estimates. <br>
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Sales slid 5.8 percent to $6.22 billion from $6.6 billion. <br>
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The consumer-products division, which includes Brawny paper towels and Northern bath tissue, reported an operating profit of $279 million, up 30 percent from a year earlier. <br>
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Georgia-Pacific plans to split off its consumer-products and packaging business from its wood division in an upcoming initial public offering. <br>
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Shares of the company were at $24.30 early Thursday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange. That's up a $1.05, or 4.5 percent.
