Retail

  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 ...

Bloomberg Ferrari NV’s ambition to compete with luxury-goods brands like Hermes or Prada has failed to make headway in the six months since its initial public offering, raising pressure on the new board to reset the sports-car maker’s strategy. Scepticism over the company’s prospects has caused the stock to tumble about 20 percent since its October listing. The new board ...

  Copenhagen / AFP Bang & Olufsen, the Danish maker of upmarket consumer electronics, said that it had ended takeover talks with a Hong Kong investor after the expiry of a deadline for a bid. The Danish group said its board of directors had been given several deadlines, the last of which was on Friday, during its takeover talks with ...

  WARSAW / Reuters Poland’s CCC, Eastern Europe’s largest shoe retailer, swung to a net loss in the first quarter of 2016 due to poor weather and an earlier Easter than last year, but still expects a big rise in 2016 sales, its deputy chief said. “March was indeed very weak and there will be a net loss in the ...

  Reuters US retail sales fell in March, dragged down by the auto sector, according to official data that suggested tepid consumer spending. The Commerce Department said retail and food services sales fell 0.3 percent in March and after sales in February were flat. The month-over-month decline was due to a 2.1 percent drop in motor vehicle sales. Stripping out ...

  LONDON / Reuters British discount retailer Poundland expects to return to underlying sales growth this financial year after its last one was hit by disruption from the acquisition of a rival and the addition of more than 200 stores, it said on Thursday. The company, which sells everything from washing detergent to boxes of chocolates to packs of batteries ...