World

MILAN :Salvatore Ferragamo's CEO promised a quick turnaround for the Italian luxury group, vowing to increase investments, revamp stores and attract younger customers to double revenues to almost 2.3 billion euros by 2026. Marco Gobbetti, who joined the family-owned group in January from Burberry, forecast a rise in Ferragamo's sales this year despite problems in China, where retail revenues declined in the first quarter due to new COVID-19 restrictions. Gobbetti said that disruptions in China, which began at the end of March, had worsened in April. But he said a strong performance in the United States and Europe had helped Ferragamo to reduce its dependency on the Chinese market, where it made 30 per cent of its sales last year. Outlining his strategy, Gobbetti said the group aimed to ...

The World Bank's "Ease of Doing Business" report tracked and encouraged improvements in the business climate around the world. Then it got canceled. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The following commentary is co-authored by Curtis S. Chin, former U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank and inaugural Asia Fellow of the Milken Institute, and Abhinav Seetharaman, a graduate student at Harvard Kennedy School and former Princeton-Asia-Fellow at the Milken Institute in Singapore. The conclusion of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) spring meetings in April left behind an elephant in the room. Since the cancellation of the World Bank's "Ease of Doing Business" Index and report late last year, the World Bank has so far failed to adequately replace what had been ...

An S&P Dow Jones Indices executive told Reuters on Wednesday it has removed electric carmaker Tesla Inc from the widely followed S&P 500 ESG Index because of issues including claims of racial discrimination and crashes linked to its autopilot vehicles, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded with harsh tweets including that "ESG is a scam". In it changes, effective May 2, the sustainability index also added soon-to-be-Musk-controlled Twitter Inc and oil refiner Phillips 66 while dropping Delta Air Lines and Chevron Corp, according to an announcement. The back-and-forth over the index changes reflects a wider debate about the metrics used to judge corporate performance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, a growing area of investing. Tesla has become the most valuable auto ind...

HONG KONG: Finance sector professionals in Shanghai are preparing to move back to Hong Kong and other offshore centres after spending only a few years in the Chinese city as a harsh COVID-19 lockdown has hurt their business prospects and upended daily lives. Thousands of bankers, traders and investors in the financial hub of the world's second-largest economy have found themselves confined to their homes, with some even struggling to secure food and other essentials for their families. The four-week-long lockdown, which has forced most of the city's 26 million people indoors, has started to weigh on prospective financial deals with some transactions being put on hold due to logistical challenges, industry executives said. "What happened in Shanghai is shocking to most of the people. Few...

TOKYO: Japanese factories saw output rise for the second straight month in March as strong global demand for high-tech chips helped to ease some doubts that are weighing on the country's economic outlook. After struggling to stage a convincing recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, the world's third-biggest economy is facing pressure from Russia's war in Ukraine, high energy and commodity prices and strict Chinese lockdown measures that are hurting demand. Factory output expanded 0.3 per cent in March from the previous month, official data showed on Thursday (Apr 28), as growing production of items such as those of semiconductors offset a drop in motor vehicle output. That meant output growth slowed from February, when it grew sharply by 2.0 per cent. The increase was weaker than a 0.5...

HAVANA: Crews worked through a second night searching for victims of a hotel explosion that killed at least 27 people in Cuba’s capital and left more than a dozen missing amid the rubble. The Hotel Saratoga, a luxury 96-room hotel in Old Havana, was finishing renovations when an apparent gas leak produced a massive explosion on Friday. Just steps from Cuba’s capitol, the Saratoga’s façade was sheared off, burying workers inside and apparently passersby outside under concrete and twisted metal. The explosion came in the late morning when the streets and plaza in front of the stately hotel would have been full of pedestrians. On Saturday evening, Dr Julio Guerra Izquierdo, chief of hospital services at the Ministry of Health, raised the death toll to 27 with 81 people injured. The dead ...

Tim Hortons is anticipating Canadian same-store sales growth in the mid-to-high single digits in 2022 as the coffee chain's turnaround takes hold in its home market. The Restaurant Brands International chain also said Tuesday during an investor presentation that it set a long-term goal for same-store sales growth of 2% to 3% annually. Tims reported Canadian same-store sales growth of 10.8% in 2021 and same-store sales declines of 16.5% in 2020. Because of its large Canadian footprint, Tim Hortons typically accounts for more than half of Restaurant Brands' revenue, but recent sluggish sales have weighed on the restaurant company's overall results. Over the last few years, Tims has shuffled its executive team, updated its coffee and breakfast offerings, and revamped its loyalty program in...

DUBLIN: Inflation clauses that determine how much airlines pay for new jets have jumped into a "hyper-escalation" band, pushing up aircraft prices but still leaving manufacturers unable to fully pass on their soaring costs, industry executives told Reuters. The hike to the top inflationary band is a rare move in the industry, potentially triggering a rise in airfares by airlines while manufacturers will also be left out of pocket, experts warned during major gatherings over the past week in Dublin, the centre of the global aviation finance industry. Airlines buy jets at a basic price agreed in confidential negotiations but the final price includes adjustments for inflation during long production waiting times, based on US factory input and labour costs, wherever the planes are built. Fo...

Amazon.com delivered a disappointing quarter and outlook on Thursday as the e-commerce giant was swamped by higher costs to run its warehouses and deliver packages to customers. Shares fell 12 per cent in after-hours trade. After a long-running surge in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon is facing a litany of challenges. The company's expenses swelled as it offered higher pay to attract workers. A fulfilment centre in New York City voted to create Amazon's first US union, a result the retailer is contesting. And higher fuel prices are beginning to eat into consumers' disposable income while making delivery more expensive for Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer. Amazon's forecast shows hiking the price of its fast-shipping club Prime last quarter may not be enough to prop...

HONG KONG: Yokohama F Marinos moved to the top of Group H in the Asian Champions League when Kevin Muscat's side handed Sydney FC a 3-0 defeat despite playing with 10 men for almost a third of the game in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday. Yokohama's win and a 1-1 draw for Jeonbuk Motors against Vietnam's Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) means the Japanese side hold a one point lead over the South Koreans with two matches remaining. Only the winners of the five groups in east Asia are sure to reach the last 16, where they will be joined by the three clubs with the best runners-up records. Yuki Saneto's diving header gave Yokohama a sixth minute lead and Takuma Nishimura doubled the advantage five minutes later when he struck from close range after a tight turn left the Sydney defence in his wake. Ryo...