Retail

  London / Bloomberg Tesco Plc agreed to sell its Dobbies Garden Centres chain for 217 million pounds ($309 million) as the U.K.’s biggest retailer continues to sell peripheral assets to focus on reviving its main supermarket business. Dobbies, which operates 35 garden-center stores across Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, will be bought by an investor group led by Midlothian …

  New Delhi / Bloomberg India is proposing to convert some of its remote rural roads into runways, both for defense and commercial planes, as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to connect the nation’s 1.3 billion people. “We can close road traffic when a plane lands and open once the plane has taken off,” Nitin Gadkari, the transport …

  Shanghai / Bloomberg Walt Disney Co.’s $5.5 billion Shanghai theme park, its first in mainland China, opened with fireworks, a dancing Mickey Mouse, dignitaries, and messages of support from two of the most powerful presidents in the world. “I hope that Shanghai Disney can provide visitors with safe and premium experiences and become a world class theme park. I …

  NEW YORK / AP Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it is cutting jobs in accounting and other back-office positions at about 500 locations in the Western region of the U.S. The move will affect two or three people per store, totaling as many as 1,500 workers, Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg said. But those employees are expected to be offered positions that …

  Sriharikota / Bloomberg India’s space agency will launch a record 22 satellites on a single rocket as it tries to ease a global backlog and demonstrate the ability to compete with commercial spaceflight companies run by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Satellites from the U.S., India, Canada and Germany will enter orbit after a scheduled June 20 liftoff …

  Seoul / Bloomberg Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth-largest family-run conglomerate, has shelved plans to list its Malaysian petrochemicals business amid widening investigations at the parent, people familiar with the matter said. The group will postpone the planned share sale of Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Sdn. until after the probes are resolved, according to the people, who asked not to …

  MADRID / AP Spanish clothes retailer Inditex, owner of the Zara store chain, posted Wednesday a 6.0-percent rise in its first-quarter net profit due to higher sales around the globe. The world’s largest fashion retailer by sales said profit for the quarter ending April 30 rose to 554 million euros ($621 million) from 521 million euros a year earlier. …

  Shanghai / Bloomberg Walt Disney Co. has hosted over 600,000 visitors at its first theme park in mainland China since trial operations started early May, and its “enormous potential” has already prompted Disney to expand the resort, said Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger. “After we broke ground we paused to really recognize the growth of China’s tourism and Shanghai …

  Shanghai / AFP The Magic Kingdom comes to the Middle Kingdom this week when Disney opens its first theme park in mainland China, betting the growing middle class will spend big on leisure despite a slowing economy. The $5.5 billion resort, which opens on Thursday, features the world’s biggest Disney castle, its blue-topped spires rising above land once occupied by …

  New Delhi / Bloomberg India is seeking a commitment from Apple Inc. to bring manufacturing facilities to the country before the government will approve the iPhone maker’s request to open its own retail stores, according to a senior government official with direct knowledge of the matter. The government may loosen existing policies that require local sourcing for companies that …