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Bloomberg Shoprite Holdings Ltd. won’t let the purchase of a 22.7 percent stake in the food retailer by Steinhoff International Holdings NV affect its independence and is on the hunt for acquisitions of its own, according to Chief Executive Officer Pieter Engelbrecht. Africa’s largest supermarket chain will continue to dictate its own strategy, the CEO said after an earnings presentation ...

Bloomberg US retail stocks have been wildly volatile for years. Now that turbulence is spreading to their close cousins, apparel stocks. Name a major company in the sector and chances are it’s posted an eye-catching tumble—or in some instances, gain—at some point this year. Coach plunged 15 percent one day last week. Michael Kors soared 22 percent in early August, ...

Bloomberg Macy’s Inc. rose after naming former eBay Inc. Senior Vice President Hal Lawton as president, bringing in an executive with an extensive technology background to the struggling department-store giant. Lawton, who starts on September 8, will be responsible for the Macy’s brand, including merchandising, marketing, stores and operations, the company. He inherits the post from Jeff Gennette, who took ...

Bloomberg Oil pared gains after the American Petroleum Institute unexpectedly reported higher inventories of US gasoline and diesel last week, even as crude supplies declined. The API estimated that stockpiles of gasoline rose 1.4 million barrels last week and diesel expanded 2.05 million, according to people familiar with the data, which is only disclosed to members. That would be a ...

KHOBAR / Reuters Saudi Aramco has received bids from international engineering companies to build gas booster compressor stations at Haradh and Hawiyah, industry sources said, as the country plans to diversify its energy mix. The contracts are part of a $4 billion scheme to increase gas production in the country for domestic consumption. Saudi Arabia’s domestic gas demand has been ...

BEIJING / Reuters Russia held its spot as China’s top crude oil supplier for a fifth month in a row in July, with shipments up 54 percent over a year earlier, data showed on Wednesday. Russian shipments last month came in at 4.97 million tonnes, or about 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd), the General Administration of Customs said in ...

KHOBAR / Reuters State-run Bahrain Petroleum Co (Bapco) will meet a consortium led by France’s Technip for further talks over the planned expansion of Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sources close to the matter told Reuters. Bahrain has long been planning to expand the Sitra refinery and industry sources told Reuters in April that all bidders for the work had been ...

Bloomberg Home energy use is finally exciting to people. Unfortunately for the traditional utilities, it’s not because of them. A combination of new technology and a push toward low-carbon energy has caused customers at Europe’s largest and most-established utilities to flee. The average annual rate of leavers is nearly 12 percent, more than double the rate a decade ago, according ...

Bloomberg Overseas fund managers and companies are tracking India’s efforts to force its biggest defaulters into insolvency proceedings as interest in buying distressed assets grows, according to investment bank Moelis & Co. A dozen companies in sectors including steel, power and construction may become buyout targets after the Reserve Bank of India ordered lenders to take them to insolvency court ...

Bloomberg China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. will raise as much as HK$88.1 billion ($11.3 billion) by selling new shares to its parent as part of a government-led ownership overhaul of the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier. Unicom plans to sell as many as 6.65 billion new shares to unlisted China Unicom (BVI) Ltd. at HK$13.24 apiece, or 10 percent higher than ...