Retail

  RIYADH / Reuters State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) has started the sale of its medical services business in Jeddah, valued at around $500 million, as part of a drive to reduce non-core assets, sources familiar with the matter said. The medical business, which is called Saudia Medical Services and owns a major hospital, could be attractive for investors as ...

  Bloomberg J Sainsbury Plc is struggling to keep up with supermarket rivals and discounters in a UK grocery market under pressure from a Brexit-induced fall in the pound. Data from researcher Kantar Worldpanel showed on Wednesday that as well as lagging the growth of cut-price grocers Aldi and Lidl, Sainsbury’s food sales are also trailing rivals Tesco Plc and ...

  Bloomberg Sony Corp. shares jumped to their highest since May 2015 after a bullish earnings report triggered analyst predictions that the electronics maker could achieve record profit this year. The Tokyo-based company rose 3 percent to 3,873 yen at the close in Tokyo on Monday after forecasting operating profit of 500 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the fiscal year ...

  DUBAI / Emirates Business The Japanese discount chain has opened a new store in Doha Festival City. The fourth Daiso Japan store in Qatar is the latest in several store openings in line with the company’s extensive regional expansion plans, bringing the count to 48 stores in the Middle East. In the Middle East, the brand is part of ...

  Emirates Business MMD, Middle East brand licensing partner of Philips Monitors, unveils the new Philips B-line borderless LCD monitor series with Philips PowerSensor. The monitors come in three sizes and two resolutions. The smart and eco-friendly PowerSensor: cuts up to 80 percent of energy consumption. Best suited for the environmentally aware, and the cost conscious, the innovative Philips PowerSensor ...

  Bloomberg French retail giants Carrefour SA and Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA have spent years battling for dominance on their home turf. Their new big battleground is almost 10,000 kilometers away. Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, has become a key factor in propping up Carrefour’s earnings in recent years amid disappointing growth in France. The grocer’s quarterly same-store revenue in Brazil ...

  Bloomberg Carrefour SA’s plan to sell shares in its Brazilian unit got a boost as the retailer’s sales in the country surged, flying in the face of record unemployment and a weakening economy. Revenue in Brazil rose 5.6 percent on a like-for-like basis in the first quarter, outpacing the 1.4 percent gain in group sales, the French grocer said ...

  Bloomberg UK retail sales fell the most since 2011 last quarter as consumers started to feel squeeze from faster inflation. Retail sales dropped 0.7 percent from a year earlier on a like-for-like basis, the British Retail Consortium said on Tuesday, noting that the timing of the Easter holiday — which this year falls in April — may be distorting ...

  Bloomberg Starbucks Corp. will provide Chinese workers with health insurance that extends coverage to their parents, a unique offering by the coffeehouse chain that may be used by more than 10,000 people to treat cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. The plan is a response to traditional values in China, the company said, as children often care for their parents ...

  Bloomberg JD Sports Fashion Plc shares soared to new highs after the U.K. sportswear retailer extended its record of confounding analysts’ expectations, helped by flourishing partnerships with suppliers including Nike Inc. and Adidas AG. The stock rose as much as 10 percent in London after the company reported an 81 percent jump in annual pretax profit to 244.8 million ...