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Esprit to close stores if no buyer found -paper
* Change of course means new shareholder structure -CEOFRANKFURT, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Hong Kong-listed Esprit Holdings may shut its North American stores if it cannot sell them as the troubled fashion retailer seeks to bolster its sagging image, its chief executive told German business daily Handelsblatt.”If we cannot find the right partner, we will close our businesses there. That would take roughly 12-18 months depending on the rental contracts,” Ronald van der Vis said in comments to be published in its Monday edition.”That also applies for the other 80 stores in the rest of the world that we will be closing.”Esprit directly manages more than 800 retail stores worldwide and distributes products via more than 14,000 wholesale locations, according to its website.An investment bank is currently negotiating with potential buyers, a process which should be finished in the coming three months.Esprit lost as much as 46 percent of its market value in less than a week in September after annual profits were nearly totally wiped out, hit by restructuring charges, and the company admitted its brand had “lost its soul”.The apparel and accessories retailer, which was founded in San Francisco in 1968 and depends on Europe for 79 percent of its sales, is withdrawing from some underperforming markets and at the same time also spending millions of dollars to revive its brand.”I understand that I did not get any applause or fan mail for that, but none of our investors told us this was wrong. Just the opposite: the mid- to long-term investors were virtually relieved,” van der Vis told Handesblatt.”We were oriented on short-term interests far too long; that’s the main reason for our current situation. Our change of course naturally means a different shareholder structure,” he added.The excerpt of Monday’s article did not explain further what the Esprit CEO meant.The company competes with Swedish clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz , U.S. group GAP and Spain’s Inditex . -
Deals of the day — mergers and acquisitions
** France’s Veolia Environnement plans to sell its urban lighting unit Citelum as part of a wider plan to sell 4 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in assets between now and 2013, Les Echos reported on Friday.** Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever on Friday said it has bought 82 percent of Russian beauty cosmetics company Concern Kalina for 500 million euros ($685 million).** KT Corp , South Korea’s top fixed-line carrier and No.2 mobile operator, said on Friday that it was seeking to buy a 20 percent stake in South Africa’s Telkom for $600 million.** British online gaming firm Sportingbet said it would dispose of its Turkish operations for at least 143 million euros ($196 million) in cash as it moves to exit activities in unregulated territories.** South Korea’s Lotte Shopping Co Ltd said on Friday that it has pulled out of a bid to buy Indonesian retailer PT Matahari Putra Prima . -
Saudi’s NCB posts 87 percent rise in Q3 net profit
JEDDAH, Saudi arabia Oct 12 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB), the country’s biggest bank by assets, posted a 87 percent rise in its third-quarter net profit, the lender said on Wednesday.State-owned NCB made a net profit of 1.5 billion riyals ($412 million) in the three months to end September, compared with 828 million riyals in the same period a year earlier.The unlisted lender’s assets grew by 13 percent to 307 billion riyals from 271 billion riyals at the end of the same period last year, it said.Its loans and advances portfolio increased by 6 percent to 130 billion riyals, from 123 billion a year earlier while customer deposits grew by 13 percent to 243 billion compared with 215 billion a year earlier.NCB’s Chief Executive, Abdul-Kareem Abu Al-Nasr, said earlier this year that he expected Saudi banks to see higher profits this year as they take less provisions and start to lend more.Abu Al-Nasr said he expects NCB’s profits this year to be higher than 2010 wher the bank posted 4.7 billion riyals.
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