Kmart, the stricken US discount retailer, is facing the indignity of having its shares dropped from the New York Stock Exchange.

On Thursday, the stock will be suspended, and is likely to switch to being traded on the Bulletin Board, a market designed for small companies.

The bad news came as Kmart warned that it would have to delay its regular quarterly filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission because it was still calculating the after-effects of earnings restatements it announced earlier in December.

It now expects to get the information in by 23 December, including trading updates for October and November.

"The delay in filing... creates a bit of anxiety, but the delisting is a formality," said Richard Hastings, retail analyst with Cyber Business Credit.

"Most people will be surprised it didn't happen a long time ago."

Losses to 'grow'

The New York Stock Exchange warns any company whose shares average a closing price of less than $1 for 30 straight trading days, a rule breached by Kmart in July.

In the five months since then, it has never climbed back above that level, closing on Monday at 58 cents.

The company has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings - designed to allow a firm to restructure while protected from its creditors - since January, after years of poor performance.

The company has said its $3.8bn in acknowledged losses are likely to grow at least another $200m when the revised figures are released, a problem it has blamed on faulty and out-of-date accounting software.

A plan by February

So far, it said, it has used up $327m of the $1.66bn "debtor-in-possession" financing it arranged when entering Chapter 11, with $244m in outstanding borrowings.

But the year's peak borrowing period - for stock buildups ahead of Thanksgiving in November and the December holidays - was over, it said, reaffirming plans to present a comprehensive recovery plan by February.

The plan is likely to include more store closures, and a focus on the Hispanic and African-American communities.