Retailer’s going out of fashion

HARVEY Norman has sold its 7.2 per cent stake in fashion house Gazal for $10.4 million.

The furniture and consumer electronics retailer will make a pre-tax profit of nearly $4 million, having bought the stake in September 2016 for $6.5 million.

It sold its interest in Gazal – a listed supplier of clothing brands including Van Heusen, Calvin Klein and Nancy Ganz – on Wednesday, notices released to the Australian Securities Exchange show.

Harvey Norman co-founder and chairman Gerry Harvey (above) is well known for investing in other areas.

The group paid $34 million for a 49.9 per cent stake in Victorian dairy farm Coomboona in 2015, but had less fortune with that investment, with Coomboona slipping into administration last month.

Harvey Norman has booked a further $4.57 million loss on its share of Coomboona’s trading activities on top of the $20.7 million impairment it booked against the joint venture at its first-half results in February.