Retail

Bloomberg Fastjet Plc Chief Executive Officer Ed Winter, who is poised to leave the African discount airline after clashing with investor Stelios Haji-Ioannou over mounting losses, said he still thinks the continent is on the cusp of a transformation into a viable aviation market. Without an unexpected slump in currencies spanning the South African rand to the Kenyan schilling, Fastjet …

Paris / AFP A bid by French household goods group Conforama, majority-owned by South Africa’s Steinhoff, for rival Darty has won the backing of Darty’s board, both companies said, derailing a planned Darty tie-up with retail giant Fnac. Conforama earlier this month launched a conditional all-cash offer for Darty at 125 pence ($1.75, 1.61 euros) per share, aiming to create …

Bloomberg British supermarket group Sainsbury’s said it had made a formal offer worth £1.4 billion for Home Retail Group, owner of catalogue chain Argos. The cash-and-stock takeover is worth the equivalent of $2.0 billion or 1.8 billion euros. Argos sells household items, including televisions, furniture and gardening tools. With South African household goods group Steinhoff having walked away from the …

HONG KONG / AFP Fashion designer Victoria Beckham launched her first shop outside Britain in Hong Kong as she seeks to tap the Asia market despite a downturn in luxury spending. Beckham’s store in Hong Kong’s Landmark building lies at the heart of the upmarket Central district, a cluster of high-end brands and five-star hotels. The British designer did a final …

Copenhagen / AFP Bang & Olufsen, the Danish maker of upmarket sound systems and televisions, said on it had entered a partnership with LG Electronics to outsource its production of televisions. The struggling Danish firm, which said in November it was in talks with a potential buyer, said the deal “will address Bang & Olufsen’s key challenges related to scale …