Comfy shoes have never been so hot. L Catterton, the private equity fund backed by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE founder Bernard Arnault, is nearing an agreement to buy a majority stake in Birkenstock, maker of the famously clumpy sandals, for about 4 billion euros ($4.9 billion), Bloomberg News reported. This would be the second shoe to drop in ...
Read More »Warren Buffett won’t take the Reddit bait
“All that’s required is the passage of time, an inner calm,†began a sentence in Warren Buffett’s annual letter to his followers. He was talking about the essentials of investing in a farm or business, but it felt like a metaphor for the collectively lonely and despairing moment that the world found itself in during the past year. With his ...
Read More »Russia needs Alexey Navalny, warts and all
Human rights group Amnesty International has revoked Alexey Navalny’s prisoner of conscience status because of past xenophobic comments. The jailed Russian opposition leader’s anti-migrant statements and nationalist dalliances are well-known. He has never retracted those views. Yet history books are full of imperfect crusaders — proof we can’t always choose a model citizen to galvanise others in the battle for ...
Read More »Australia mulls aid to Qantas, others once wage subsidy ends
Bloomberg Australia’s treasurer said he’s considering measures to support firms like Qantas Airways Ltd and others that are still struggling with fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, once the government’s JobKeeper wage subsidy expires late next month. “We are looking at other measures that we can put in place post-JobKeeper to support a range of industries including the aviation sector,†Josh ...
Read More »Robinsons Retail aims to boost its online sales
Bloomberg Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc plans to increase its e-commerce business to between 2% and 3% of total sales this year by expanding the company’s online presence through its own Internet platforms and others. The Philippine retailer’s e-commerce sales reached 1.1% of total revenue last year, up from 0.4% in 2019, as consumers migrated to online purchases because of the ...
Read More »Virgin Galactic slumps again after Branson flight delayed
Bloomberg Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc sank after saying its next test flight to space won’t occur until May, three months after the previous plan and further delaying the company’s space tourism trips. The new schedule also pushed back Virgin Galactic’s plan to carry billionaire founder Richard Branson on a separate test that had been set for the first quarter, since ...
Read More »Sephora plans dozens of US stores in bet on physical retail
Bloomberg LVMH’s Sephora beauty chain said it will open more than 60 stand-alone US stores this year in addition to the hundreds of shops already planned at Kohl’s Corp locations, betting big on a resurgence of retail foot traffic as the pandemic wanes. The expansion will take place in the Pacific Northwest, Los Angeles and the South, with plans to ...
Read More »Foot Locker falls 12% after drop in sales
Bloomberg Foot Locker Inc shares fell as much as 12% in premarket trading after the athletic-goods retailer missed analysts’ expectations for same-store sales and overall revenue. Comparable-store sales declined 2.7% in the fourth quarter ended on January 30, Foot Locker said, compared with analysts’ estimate of a 3.5% increase as compiled by Consensus Metrix. Revenue of $2.19 billion missed the ...
Read More »Belk to cut $450m of debt with record-breaking speed
Bloomberg Belk Inc, the department store chain owned by Sycamore Partners, won court approval of its plan to slash $450 million of debt less than one day after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. US Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur said in a hearing he would approve the retailer’s bankruptcy plan, paving the way for Belk to emerge from Chapter 11. If ...
Read More »Myanmar crackdown leaves at least 5 dead in violent weekend
Bloomberg At least five people died as Myanmar’s military government cracked down on protests over the weekend, and escalated non-tolerance for dissent with the ouster of the country’s representative to the United Nations along with the arrests of journalists and hundreds of demonstrators. Police in the city of Dawei in southern Myanmar opened fire into a crowd on Sunday, killing ...
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