Sara Lee Off Loads Mexican Stake

Sara Lee (SLE) announced Thursday that it is selling its 49.9% stake in the Qualtia Alimentos business in Mexico to its joint venture partner, Xignux. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The completion of the transaction is subject to customary conditions and is expected to occur within a month.

OK, so most investors get selling a business that maybe does not fit anymore. But the press release goes on to say that the business being sold is grossing $300 million. That’s approximately 10% of last quarter's total gross. When you sell something like that and do not provide any financial information the investor has a hard time understanding if wealth was created or destroyed.

By the way, in the last earnings release, which was publicly disclosed on February 6, 2008, management went so far as to publicly comment that Mexico was doing much better. The line of reasoning here does not seem straight forward and could use a great deal more clarity.