Retail

  London / AFP British telecoms giant Vodafone on Tuesday posted its first annual rise in operating profits in eight years, boosted by growth in Europe and emerging markets. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 2.7 percent to £11.6 billion ($16.7 billion, 14.7 billion euros) in the year to March, Vodafone said in a results statement. That was ...

Ottawa / Bloomberg Bombardier Inc. has turned a corner and its deal with Delta Air Lines Inc. makes federal aid for the Canadian plane maker less urgent, Quebec’s finance minister said. Delta’s $5.6 billion agreement to purchase at least 75 C Series jets will help Montreal-based Bombardier promote the plane and win more orders, Carlos Leitao said in an interview ...

  shanghai / bloomberg HNA Group Co., the Chinese conglomerate that controls the country’s fourth-largest airline, is in exclusive talks with the biggest shareholder of CWT Ltd. for a potential acquisition of shares in the Singapore-based logistics company. There is no certainty that the negotiations will result in an agreement, CWT said on Monday. The company’s shares rose after the ...

  Taipei / Bloomberg Acer’s announcement that it will work with the Swedish games maker Starbreeze to produce a virtual-reality headset could be the ailing PC maker’s most brilliant move in years. Or it could be a colossal failure. According to their joint release, the companies plan to form a joint venture to design, make and sell the StarVR headset. ...

  Unterhaching / AFP Out with the cardboard boxes, rough forklift crates and no-frills warehouse look — in with cozy wood panelling, natural light and chilled fruit smoothies at the breakfast bar. Aldi, Germany’s original discount supermarket chain, is getting a major facelift — spelling the end of an era, at least in design terms, for the traditional first-stop shop of ...

Shanghai / Bloomberg An anti-counterfeit group suspended the membership of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., one month after the Chinese Internet giant joined, after questions were raised about conflicts of interest involving the coalition’s president and complaints from some members. The International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, a nonprofit global organization that fights counterfeit products and piracy, created a new membership category in April ...

  Washington / Bloomberg Wal-Mart Stores Inc. directors got a Delaware judge to throw out investors’ claims they bungled the handling of a probe into alleged bribes paid to facilitate Mexican real-estate deals, wiping out the majority of lawsuits over the scandal. Disgruntled Wal-Mart shareholders accusing the retailer’s board of covering up the bribery scheme can’t re-litigate their claims over ...

  London / AFP Tesco said that it rebounded into slender annual net profits on strong sales, after a vast property writedown and challenging home trade sparked a record loss the previous year. The troubled British supermarket giant revealed that earnings after taxation stood at £138 million ($197 million, 172 million euros) in its 2015/2016 financial year, which ran until the ...

  New York / AFP The dollar jumped this week after a better-than-expected rebound in US retail sales last month erased some doubts about the strength of the US economy. But the yen also gained, shrugging off more efforts by Tokyo to talk it down from recent highs. The greenback was up 0.6 percent on the euro and the pound, and ...

  Bloomberg A glum outlook from Macy’s Inc. renewed concerns about the broader retail industry, contributing to a stock rout for consumer companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Michael Kors Holdings Ltd., Ralph Lauren Corp. and Ross Stores Inc. Macy’s cut its profit forecast for this year and posted first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates — a sign that slow ...