Retail

Bloomberg Claire’s Stores, known for tween jewellery and ear piercing, has become the latest victim of the retail apocalypse. The company filed for bankruptcy on March 19 and said it reached an agreement with creditors including its private-equity backer, Apollo Global Management LLC, to restructure around $1.9 billion in debt. Its plan to survive rests on its reputation for trendy ...

Bloomberg The collapse of Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. is yet another blow for landlords, who now will have gaping holes of suburban retail space up for grabs. And few tenants would want them. The debt-laden toy chain, with more than 700 stores across the US, became one of the largest victims of the retail decline when it announced that it ...

Bloomberg Wesfarmers Ltd.’s plan to spin off its Coles supermarket and convenience stores could put the Australian retailing giant in play. The business, which generated A$39.2 billion ($30.5 billion) in sales from 2,500 stores in fiscal 2017, could be attractive to a buyer looking to make a big splash Down Under, Citigroup Inc.’s Sydney-based credit specialist Anthony Ip said. “We ...

Bloomberg In its race to catch Amazon.com Inc. in online retailing, Walmart Inc. issued misleading e-commerce results and fired an executive who complained the company was breaking the law, according to a whistle-blower lawsuit. Tri Huynh, a former director of business development at Walmart, claims he was terminated “under false pretenses” after repeatedly raising concerns about the company’s “overly aggressive ...

Bloomberg L’Oreal SA is set to acquire the Canadian beauty tech company ModiFace, gaining tools for customers to test make-up and lipstick online. ModiFace’s augmented reality technology has been widely adopted by cosmetics makers since the company was founded in 2006 and helps power the mobile apps of LVMH’s Sephora and Estee Lauder. The Maybelline maker has built a stable ...

Bloomberg The owner of the Zara clothing chain is facing skepticism among investors that it can keep up with the likes of Amazon.com Inc. in online retail. While Inditex SA’s e-commerce revenue surged 41 percent last fiscal year and its websites are attracting more than 10 million visits a day, total sales grew at the weakest pace in three years ...

Bloomberg Trump Hotels is looking to expand beyond its regular business to managing lodging properties under brands other than its own. The first step in that direction may be running a hotel linked to the president’s son-in-law. The company founded by Donald Trump is in talks to manage a planned hotel in Long Branch, New Jersey, that is under development ...

Bloomberg American shopping malls may be dying, but their debt is still very much alive. Consumer discretionary companies are the biggest bet of funds that repackage leveraged loans, which use them in almost a quarter of the collateral underpinning $213 billion of bonds covered by S&P Global Ratings, according to the firm. Demand for those notes helped spur a 65 ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. is shifting its Prime Pantry service, which focusses on non-perishable household goods like breakfast cereal, laundry detergent and shampoo, to a $5 per month membership model. Amazon will make the change gradually, encouraging Prime Pantry shoppers to commit to a monthly service charge that gives them free shipping on orders of at least $40, a company spokeswoman ...

Bloomberg Consumer staples companies such as Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc and Procter & Gamble Co. should be paying higher dividends to compensate investors for increasing levels of risk, according to the head of a fund that’s beaten 99 percent of peers in 2018. Reckitt’s dividend yield of 2.8 percent and P&G’s of 3.4 percent is similar to the 2.9 percent ...