TOKYO: Japan Post Holdings, the state-owned titan that employs 200,000 staff and controls both the country’s largest bank and insurance company, is seeking to raise Y1.39 trillion ($11.5bn) in a three-way stock market listing more than a decade in the making.
Ikea marches on as sales rise to €32 billion; sales increase 5% worldwide as furniture giant boosts sales in fast-growing Russian and Chinese markets. The EU’s top court was accused of “tormenting” business after ruling that workers without fixed offices should be paid for the journey time to and from their first and last customers.
John Lewis Partnership suffered a 26% drop in half-year profit as higher pension costs and a fierce supermarket price war took their toll. Primark made its long-awaited debut in America with the opening of a flagship store in Boston.
Food prices have suffered their sharpest monthly fall in seven years, piling pressure on hard-pressed British farmers to increase borrowing and on supermarkets to pass on more savings to customers.
