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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 ...

Bloomberg Airbus Group SE lost an order for two A380 superjumbos from Indian Ocean carrier Air Austral, which had aimed to fit the planes with the highest-capacity seating layout in the history of civil aviation. The aircraft, whose planned 840-seat configuration had led them to be widely labeled by the media as “flying sardine cans,” were removed from Airbus’s order ...

Sunaina Rana/ Emirates Business Messe Frankfurt has established a prominent name in the region for organising trade fairs. The company deems organising fair their passion. Like hardly any other company, Messe Frankfurt is a byword for internationally successful trade fair concepts. With its brands, the Group is as much at home in key international hubs as at its own Frankfurt ...

Our Correspondent / EMIRATES BUSINESS La Chaux-de-Fonds is the cradle of Swiss fine watchmaking. In 1887 Georges Eberhard, then aged 22, founded the Eberhard & Co Watchmaking Manufacture there. From the very outset, the Firm specialised in the manufacture of technical watches, producing its first wrist chronograph in 1919. This complication would later become the firm’s specialty. Eberhard & Co ...

Dubai / WAM Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, on Monday inaugurated the Annual Investment Meeting, AIM 2016, at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. The event was attended by representatives of official delegations from more than 140 countries, reaffirming the robustness of the UAE economy ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Estimates of 2015 total direct foreign investment(FDI) in the Emirates of Abu Dhabi showed a growth of 8.9% to reach AED 88.324 billion against AED 81.112 billion in 2014. 18.9% or AED 16.710 billion of these direct foreign investments went to the manufacturing industries in 2015, with a 7.8% growth rate, against AED 15.502 billion and ...

ABU DHABI / wam Aldar Properties, in response to strong demand for a villa development that is available for purchase by all nationalities, is delighted to announce the launch of Yas Acres. This golf and waterfront development which will add 1,315 villas to Yas Island, is one of the most significant new residential developments to be launched in Abu Dhabi ...