Bottomline

LONDON:

British home improvement retailer Homebase said on Tuesday it planned to close 42 stores, putting 1,500 jobs at risk, with new owner Hilco Capital seeking to reduce its cost base in a brutal trading environment.

Hilco acquired the struggling chain from Australian group Wesfarmers for a nominal 1 pound in May.

Homebase said the proposed closures form part of a so-called Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) restructuring, allowing the business to avoid insolvency or administration.

A string of British store groups have either gone out of business or announced plans to close shops this year, as they struggle with subdued consumer spending, rising labour costs, higher business property taxes and growing online competition.

CVAs have been adopted by a string of British retailers including fashion chain New Look, floor coverings group Carpetright and mother-and-baby goods firm Mothercare. (RTRS)

ZURICH:

Novartis has recruited a new chief ethics officer from Siemens after costly bribery scandals and a disputed $1.2 million contract with President Donald Trump’s former lawyer that the Swiss drugmaker now calls a mistake.

Novartis said on Tuesday it had hired Klaus Moosmayer, 49, from Siemens, where he spent more than a decade helping oversee the German engineering company’s efforts to build its compliance system after several of its own bribery scandals.

Novartis Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan, promoted on Feb 1 to lead the Basel-based company, has promised to boost its reputation following settlements or fines in corruption cases in China, South Korea and the United States.

He has also faced US lawmakers’ criticism over the contract with former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, something Narasimhan called a “mistake” that exposed Novartis to accusations it paid to gain influence within the administration. ( RTRS)

LONDON:

WPP is set to move out of its central London headquarters after 30 years, in another break with the past following the departure in April of founder and CEO Martin Sorrell from the world’s largest advertising company.

A person familiar with the situation said the company would stop leasing the small mews property which, despite its location in Farm Street in the upscale district of Mayfair, is one of the more low-key headquarters for a FTSE 100 company.

Staff from the head office, who cover areas such as legal and finance, will move into Sea Containers, a large office on the south bank of the River Thames that is already home to some of WPP’s agencies.

That building may not be large enough for all the staff in the parent company however and the long-term ambition is for all staff to work together, the person said, indicating that that may be temporary.

The move, taken by joint chief operating officers Mark Read and Andrew Scott, marks a fresh start for the group after Sorrell took on Farm Street and its warren of corridors and low ceiling offices in 1987 as part of his acquisition of JWT.

Sorrell, one of Britain’s most highprofile businessmen, quit the group in April after it said it had investigated an allegation of personal misconduct made against him. ( RTRS)

MUMBAI:

Cyber criminals hacked the systems of India’s Cosmos Bank and siphoned off nearly 944 million rupees ($13.5 million) through simultaneous withdrawals across 28 countries over the weekend, the bank has told police.

The co-operative bank said unidentified hackers stole customer information through a malware attack on its automated teller machine (ATM) server, withdrawing 805 million rupees in 14,849 transactions in just over two hours on Aug. 11, mainly overseas.

Apart from the ATM withdrawals, the hackers transferred 139 million rupees to a Hong Kong-based company’s account by issuing three unauthorised transactions over the SWIFT global payments network, the bank said in a police complaint, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

SWIFT, whose messaging system is used to transfer trillions of dollars a day, said it did not comment on individual cases.

Cosmos Bank, based in the western city of Pune, said in a press statement that its main banking software receives debit card payment requests via a “switching system” but it was bypassed in the attack.

“During the malware attack, a proxy switch was created and all the fraudulent payment approvals were passed by the proxy switching system,” the bank said. (RTRS)

TAIPEI:

Taiwan’s Mega International Commercial Bank plans to terminate its payment clearing mechanism between Taiwan and Iran after November in a response to the United States’ sanctions on Iran, three people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

“Our business with Iran is too sensitive, and we should no longer get involved in it,” an official from the bank told Reuters, adding that the bank has informed clients the payment clearing mechanism is likely to be terminated after November.

New US sanctions on Iran have taken effect last week despite pleas from Washington’s allies, with the US President Donald Trump saying companies doing business with Iran will be barred from the US. (RTRS)

TOKYO:

Japanese discount retailer Don Quijote Holdings Co Ltd was once the industry’s enfant terrible, overturning standard retail practices with its cluttered and chaotic stores that sell everything from faux leopardskin rugs to designer watches.

These days, however, Donki – as it popularly known – is more of a role model, defying Japan’s weak retail environment to last week report its 29th year of unbroken sales and profit growth.

With sales projected to hit 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) this year, Donki is joining the top ranks of Japan’s heavyweight retail market, among the likes of Aeon Co Ltd, Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing Co Ltd and convenience store operator Seven & i Holdings Co Ltd. (Click here for an interactive graphic on the trillion-yen club https:// tmsnrt.rs/2nlHCUl). (RTRS)