Retail

  Paris / Bloomberg Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA, the French grocery retailer targetted by short seller Carson Block, reported higher first-quarter sales in its home market, easing pressure on Chief Executive Officer Jean-Charles Naouri. Revenue in France rose 2.8 percent to 4.55 billion euros ($5.1 billion), Saint-Etienne, France-based Casino said on Thursday in a statement. Analysts predicted 4.52 billion euros. French ...

  HONG KONG / Reuters In a bid to increase its retail footprint, McDonald’s Corp is targeting private equity firms, including Bain Capital, MBK Partners, TPG Capital Management and Chinese state-backed conglomerate China Resources (Holdings) for its planned sale of 2,800 restaurants in North Asia, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The US fast food giant is adopting a ...

  LONDON / Bloomberg Tesco has announced on Wednesday that it rebounded into slender annual net profits on strong sales, after a vast property write-down 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) in its 2015/2016 financial year, which ran until the ...

  Reuters Teen apparel retailer American Apparel Llc is laying off hundreds of workers as it overhauls its production process, which could include outsourcing part of its production to another US manufacturer, the Los Angeles Times reported. “If we do decide to produce some pieces out-of-house, they will still be American-made,” Chief Executive Paula Schneider wrote in a letter obtained ...

  Reuters Mall operator Aeon Co Malaysia has established twin debt facilities to raise up to 1 billion ringgit ($260 million) in Islamic securities, according to a regulatory filing by credit rating agency RAM Ratings. The issuance plan from Aeon, 51 percent owned by Japan’s largest retailer Aeon Co Ltd, includes 15-year Islamic medium-term notes and 7-year Islamic commercial papers. ...

  Bloomberg Commercial space exploration can advance at the fast pace of internet commerce only if the cost is reduced through advances in reusable rockets, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said. The e-commerce pioneer drew comparisons between the growth of his online retail business over the past 20 years and his investments in space exploration with his company ...

LONDON / Reuters British online fashion retailer ASOS met forecasts with an 18 percent rise in first-half profit and said it was on track to achieve its sales and margin guidance for the full year. Established in 2000 for fashion-conscious twenty somethings, ASOS was an early ecommerce success story, but is seeing growing competition from the likes of Germany’s Zalando ...

Reuters French retailer Groupe Fnac on Tuesday urged shareholders of takeover target Darty to take no action after South African retail conglomerate Steinhoff launched a rival $975 bid through its Conforama unit. “Fnac is currently considering its options and urges Darty shareholders to take no further action at this time,” Fnac said in a statement issued by Darty, noting the ...

PARIS / AFP A slowdown in the Chinese market pushed Prada’s profits sharply lower last year, the Italian luxury company said. Net profit dropped nearly 27 percent to just under 331 million euros ($378 million) in the 12 months to end-January, Prada’s financial year. Group sales stagnated at 3.5 billion euros, while the contribution from Asia dropped because of Chinese weakness, ...

Bangkok / DPA Belgium-based diamond-jewellery maker Roos is eyeing Asia and North America as the next potential markets for its business, after successfully reaching a high level in Europe, especially Belgium and the Netherlands. Thailand would be a hub to support and facilitate the growth of Roos’ business in Asia. “We started selling our Roos jewellery ornaments last week in ...