Retail

Seven & i’s latest revamp leaves stale aftertaste

7 Mar 2025

Incoming boss Stephen Dacus is keeping plans to sell the $37 bln firm’s superstores and list its US business. What’s new is using the proceeds to buy back $13 bln of stock over five years. That’s no strategy for growth or unlocking value. A sale to Couche-Tard still looks best.

Alibaba’s comeback has redeeming features

21 Feb 2025

The Chinese giant's market value is up 60% to $320 bln this year. The e-commerce unit is recovering, strengthening funding for its promising cloud and AI ventures. It vindicates boss Eddie Wu's decision to shelve a breakup. But fierce competition will keep margins under pressure.

Amazon superstore becomes harder to justify

6 Feb 2025

The $2.5 trln e-commerce company competes with Microsoft in the cloud, Walmart in retail and Meta and Alphabet for ads. With AI, it’s even harder to be great at everything against such strong rivals. An eroding premium suggests that keeping it all under one roof makes less sense.

Bad things come in small US package taxes

5 Feb 2025

Bluntly ending a duty-free exemption on Chinese goods costing less than $800 will affect more than Shein and Temu shoppers. A $50 parcel could double in price, by one estimate, hurting small merchants, too. Retaliation and more supply-chain upheaval are also apt to hike the bill.

LVMH signals US is yet to be luxury’s new China

29 Jan 2025

The $368 bln French group’s China weakness meant its shares had a torrid time in 2024. A surge in richer Americans’ wealth implies the US could be an alternative luxury growth engine. Underwhelming results at LVMH, normally a bellwether, suggest this remains a work in progress.

Puma offers bad mix of sprained ankle and silence

23 Jan 2025

The $5 bln German sportswear group’s shares plunged 20% after a bad fourth quarter, in contrast to Adidas’ strength. Puma’s plan to compete involves selling direct to consumers and a flashy new sports shoe. A key part of investors’ concern is its caginess on what’s going awry.

Reliance is latest prong of US’s India pitchfork

17 Jan 2025

Earnings at Mukesh Ambani’s $198 bln giant grew 7%, supported by its energy business. But US sanctions against Russian oil will dull gains from a 10-yr supply deal it just signed with Rosneft. The curbs appear to have caught it off guard and threaten its share price recovery.

Richemont shine casts fuzzy light on luxury rally

16 Jan 2025

The $94 bln Swiss group’s shares rose 16% as the Cartier owner smashed quarterly sales forecasts. The numbers pushed up rival stocks like LVMH. That seems premature. US consumers may offset weak Chinese spending but most of its competitors lack Richemont’s jewellery focus.

Adani’s consumer exit crystallises costs of crisis

6 Jan 2025

The Indian infrastructure group will end a 25-year-old cooking oil joint venture with Wilmar. The sale of its stake to its Singapore partner is discounted and convoluted but, if all goes well, the deal will raise $2 bln and boost the embattled seller's financial position.

Sour grapes spill beans on squashed grocery deal

11 Dec 2024

After trying to unite for two years, Albertsons and Kroger each claimed the other broke their contract a day after US judges nixed the $25 bln merger. The blame game may well end in a stalemate. It also suggests trustbusters astutely divined a ruthlessness veiled in so much M&A.

Blocked grocery mega-merger tips rolling M&A cart

10 Dec 2024

A US judge ruled Kroger’s $25 bln union with Albertsons is anticompetitive, siding with President Biden’s trustbusters. The decision further ingrains some of their bolder ideas. Dealmakers and CEOs planning shopping sprees under a new administration could use the reality check.

Walmart streak suggests it can weather Trump toll

19 Nov 2024

The $700 bln giant hiked its annual sales outlook as more people shopped at its stores. Despite being a big importer from China, it powered through the incoming president’s first trade war. With shares at an all-time high, investors are betting it can cope with another outbreak.

Giant LBO brings barbarians to Seven & i’s rescue

13 Nov 2024

The founding Ito family has offered $58 bln to take the 7-Eleven operator private. The whopping deal would stretch Japan’s financing markets and require a management overhaul to generate decent returns. Still, it gives the board another alternative to Canadian suitor Couche-Tard.

Burberry buyer would need steel-plated trench coat

6 Nov 2024

Shares in the $4 bln UK luxury group rose after a website reported that Moncler was eyeing a bid. But the returns on offer look low, while boosting the brand will be costly. Possible suitors require deep pockets, and the patience to wait a long time for any kind of payback.

India’s stock market has a rising local flavour

6 Nov 2024

Food delivery app Swiggy is taking orders for its $1.3 bln IPO, shrugging off the risk of getting caught in any US election-induced global volatilty. It underscores both an urgency by its backers which include SoftBank and an increasingly domestic ownership of equities.

India’s slowdown is touching the untouchable

5 Nov 2024

Shoppers have cut back on the basics for years. The latest company earnings suggest austerity is shifting from the rural poor to urban folks, from biscuits and milk to clothes and cars. Giants like $215 bln Reliance and Unilever are starting to reflect a souring economic reality.

How to harvest cash crops amid a retail drought

23 Oct 2024

Shopkeepers worldwide are wrestling with fickle customers, clunky logistics and more. Tractor Supply, a $32 bln chain that sells everything from chicken feed to overalls, has defied the trends with lush returns on par with Apple and Netflix. There are seeds for peers to sow.

Luxury’s China wobble will accelerate M&A

16 Oct 2024

LVMH lost 7% of its market value after revealing bleak consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy. The broader sell-off will make small players more vulnerable. But this will create a big opening for cash-rich giants to pounce on already battered stocks like Kering.

Richemont exits online hell, but heaven is way off

9 Oct 2024

The $70 bln luxury group is offloading its ailing platform YNAP in exchange for a stake in US-listed buyer Mytheresa. Chair Johann Rupert gets rid of a loss-making arm. But the sector’s dubious economics make it hard to see how he winds up with a holding that offsets his blushes.

Hey team: Weaker hiring means back to the office

8 Oct 2024

About 100 mln people in North America and Europe now work remotely at least some days. More CEOs, like Amazon’s Andy Jassy, want to end the practice altogether. The tension is upsetting staff and spurring defections, but a rise in joblessness would shift power back to employers.