Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV’s former Chief Executive Officer Markus Jooste has been thrown a lifeline by banks as the global retailer he oversaw for 18 years struggles to survive an accounting scandal that happened under his watch. The 57-year-old’s personal investment company Mayfair Holdings Pty Ltd. has been given until the end of the year by lenders to sell …

Bloomberg Kering SA rose after the luxury company’s white-hot Gucci brand kept up its relentless growth pace at the start of the year, with online sales more than doubling in the first quarter. The Paris-based company’s shares rose as much as 6.1 percent early Wednesday after it said comparable sales grew 37 percent in first quarter. Analysts had expected a …

Bloomberg Whitbread Plc is betting that its faster-growing Costa Coffee chain will compete more effectively against the likes of Starbucks Corp. once separated from the company’s hotel business. Costa will be spun off from Premier Inn within 24 months, the Dunstable, England-based company said. The planned split follows mounting pressure from activist investors who said the two businesses sit uneasily …