Retail

  BERLIN / Reuters Zalando reported slower first-quarter sales growth after a blistering 2015, but Europe’s biggest dedicated online fashion retailer said sales had accelerated since the Easter holidays in late March and reiterated its annual targets. Fashion retailers such as H&M and Next have reported a weak start to 2016 due to an earlier Easter than last year and …

  MADRID / Reuters Fast-food company Telepizza has announced it planned to list on Spain’s stock market on April 27, looking to raise 550 million euros ($621 million) from the share sale, to become one of the first Spanish companies to seek a listing this year. Specialised engineering company Dominion, a unit of car parts company CIE Automotive, is planning …

  Riyadh / AFP State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines plans to launch a low-cost offshoot next year under initiatives to restructure the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy, official media said. Known as “Flyadeal”, the low-cost carrier will begin operations from the middle of next year, Saudi Arabian Airlines chief Saleh al-Jasser said. It will operate independently of its parent firm, Jasser was quoted …

  Bloomberg Associated British (AB) Foods Plc reported first-half earnings that beat analyst estimates as improved results from its sugar business offset a decline in profit at its Primark discount retail chain. Adjusted pretax profit rose 4 percent to 466 million pounds ($667 million), the London-based company said in a statement on Tuesday. Analysts were predicting 454 million pounds, according …

  Bloomberg Padenga Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest supplier of Nile crocodile skins for luxury handbags and shoes, is seeking to boost profitability by feeding the aquatic reptiles a corn-rich diet and allowing them more space to grow. The company’s biggest market for hides is Italy, the home of luxury goods makers including Prada Spa, which sells a crocodile and …

  Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s finance affiliate is planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Shanghai’s main board in what could be China’s highest IPO valuation since 2010, according to two people familiar with the matter. Zhejiang Ant Small & Micro Financial Services Group Co. has been profitable for three years, enabling it to meet the listing requirements, and …

Bloomberg The largest Philippine seller of luxury brands such as Jimmy Choo shoes and Prada handbags says investors and analysts should temper earnings expectations, with competition among retailers squeezing margins – even as consumer spending shows no signs of letting up. Intensifying competition for consumers will cap sales growth, SSI Group Inc. President Anthony Huang said in an interview. Profit …

DELFT / Reuters In two medieval Dutch cities, IKEA’s most senior executives are finalising the biggest overhaul at the Swedish-born furniture empire in over 30 years. The aim is to help the world’s largest furniture seller better adapt to changing consumer tastes, manage its increasing size and avoid the fate of other dominant retailers overtaken by new market entrants. However, …

  LONDON / Reuters Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has agreed to buy British bureau-de-change operator International Currency Exchange (ICE), the companies said, the latest takeover in a European investment spree aimed at expanding its business outside Asia. The acquisitive Global Fortune 500 company, which secured an all-cash $1.5 billion purchase of Swiss airline caterer Gategroup Holdings on last Monday, has …

  JOHANNESBURG / Reuters South African retailer Edcon has received support from its lenders to defer 1.6 billion rand ($110 million) of interest payments to December to boost its liquidity, it announced recently. Taken private in a highly leveraged buyout by Bain Capital in 2007, the country’s biggest clothing retailer said close to 80 percent of holders of a 2018 …