Retail News CRM

Author: Mei Ling Tan

  • Inditex Group to introduce m-payment in Sept

    Inditex Group to introduce m-payment in Sept

    Mobile payment is coming to stores belonging to fashion retailer Inditex Group in September, chairman and executive Pablo Isla announced recently during the company’s annual general meeting.

    Inditex has eight brands and more than 7,000 stores throughout the world. These brands include Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe.

    Initially, the company’s in-house developed application, InWallet, will facilitate mobile payment at any of the group’s brands in Spain. The service will also allow all receipts to be issued electronically. Isla said the new service has been designed to enhance the shopping experience and aims to significantly simplify the purchase and returns process.

    Customers can activate the service directly from the online app and add the payment cards they want to use on the account in a safe and secure way.  The app has been developed entirely in-house by Inditex as part of the group’s efforts to continually upgrade technology to improve the overall customer experience.

    Isla also announced that the RFID technology rollout across all Zara stores is on track for completion by the end of this year and due to be rolled out in the rest of the group’s brands starting next year.

    Meanwhile, the Inditex chief has launched an ambitious recycling program that would collect customers’ unwanted clothing when shopping online.

    Under the plan, between 1,500 and 2,000 clothes collection containers will  be installed in several Spanish cities in collaboration with Caritas. Simultaneously, Zara will continue installing containers in the bricks and mortar stores, and in September all Zara stores in Spain will have a container for recycling.

    Caritas will sort the clothing to further the garment’s life through its distribution channels or allow for recycling for the development of new textile raw materials.  The pilot test will initially trial in Madrid with the aim of gradually introducing the scheme all over Spain.

    Inditex said it will donate €3.5 million ($3.9 million) over two years to this project, which will also encompass the modernization of Cáritas’s garment sorting and treatment plants.

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  • Thailand’s Central declares $89.6 mln tax on Big C Vietnam deal

    Thailand’s Central declares $89.6 mln tax on Big C Vietnam deal

    Thai retail giant Central Group has declared around VND2 trillion (US$89.6 million) in tax on its acquisition of Vietnam’s biggest foreign-owned supermarket chain Big C, local media reported.

    Big C Vietnam, which declared the tax on behalf of its new owner, has paid VND380 billion ($17.03 million) of the amount, Tuoi Tre newspaper said on Monday, citing an unnamed source from the Ministry of Finance. The rest is expected to be collected later.

    The source did not comment on why the sum was much lower than the official estimate of VND3.6 trillion ($159 million) by the ministry’s General Department of Taxation.

    In June the department sent letters to Central Group and France’s Casino Group, the chain’s former owner, demanding them to pay tax on the $1.04 billion deal and threatening to block the ownership transfer.

    It reportedly said in the letters that the companies were far behind their tax obligation. According to the department, Vietnam’s laws stipulate that businesses have 10 days to pay taxes on the sale of their holdings after their negotiation is completed. The Big C deal was made public on April 29.

    At the end of last month, the tax authority reminded the companies of the tax again, saying they will be fined 0.05-0.07 percent per day for late payment.

    Big C is the largest foreign-owned retail chain in Vietnam with 33 supermarkets and 11 convenience stores. Many big players such as Vietnam’s largest retailer Co.op Mart, Japan’s Aeon, Thailand’s TCC and South Korea’s Lotte were interested when Casino announced its sale plan at the end of last year.

    Vietnamese electronics retailer Nguyen Kim, 49 percent owned by Central Group, also joined the Thai conglomerate in the acquisition of Big C. Their respective stakes have not been disclosed.

  • Thailand’s Dtac calls for frequency act amendments

    Thailand’s Dtac calls for frequency act amendments

    Dtac’s new chief corporate affairs officer Paradai Theerathada gave evidence at the National Legislative Assembly committee on the new National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Act.

    Paradai joined Dtac from TMB (formerly Thai Military Bank) on June 26.

    Dtac has called for an early auction clause with the new licence taking effect the day after the old licence expires.

    This would solve the problem of uncertainty for operators and users alike who fear that their SIMs may be rendered dead after an auction.

    Paradai pointed out that without a provision for an early auction, Thailand has ended up with extension after extension in the name of consumer protection that benefits nobody. An early auction would also mean that the state gets the licence fees earlier too.

    Dtac also calls for the law to enable spectrum trading. The current draft only allows for spectrum sharing and spectrum leasing. Paradai said that spectrum trading would allow a new entrant to enter the market without waiting for an auction and would allow for a graceful exit with the spectrum sold off if need be.

    Paradai said that spectrum trading would keep incumbents on their toes and lead to better service as a new entrant with a better business plan could enter the market at any time.

    He said that rules would need to be put into place to prevent someone bidding for spectrum to sell off with no intention of operating a business.

    Finally Dtac reiterated its call for a clear spectrum roadmap going forth.

    Thailand still has an acute shortage of spectrum. Of the 1960 MHz of spectrum the ITU has earmarked for data by 2020, Thailand only has 320 MHz available today. Paradai called for clear, five year plans, open to the public so that operators can plan their investments in advance.

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  • Keppel Land opens mall in Ho Chi Minh City

    Keppel Land opens mall in Ho Chi Minh City

    Property firm Keppel Land opened a mall in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday as part of plans to increase its presence in Vietnam.

    The mall in Saigon Centre has 55,000 sq m of retail space and is already fully leased with over 400 international and local brands, the firm said.

    They include anchor tenant Takashimaya, the Japanese retail giant, which has taken up 15,000 sq m for its flagship store, its first outlet in the city.

    keppel land

    Takashimaya Singapore managing director Tatsuo Yano said: “This development has come about through years of cultivated retail experience between Japan and Singapore. We aim to create a store that will become a well-soughtafter shopping destination.”

    The mall is part of Saigon Centre’s phase two development, which also includes 195 luxury serviced apartments and a 37-storey prime office tower. Phase two – which will be completed at the end of next year – will cost US$255 million (S$341 million) to develop.

    Keppel Land, a subsidiary of Keppel Corporation, told The Straits Times that future phases could include a five-star hotel and more retail offerings.

    Phase one, which included 11 floors of Grade A office space and 89 luxury serviced apartments, was completed in 1996.

    Keppel Land said 97 per cent of the office space in phase one was leased, with DBS Bank, AIG, Reuters and Mitsubishi Corporation among the tenants.

    Both phases one and two of the project are jointly owned by Keppel Land, Toshin Development and Vietnamese partners Southern Waterborne and Transportation Corporation and Saigon Real Estate Corporation. Keppel Land holds a 45.3 per cent stake in the development.

    Since its first foray into Vietnam in the early 1990s, Keppel Land has 19 licensed projects across the country.

    The mall’s opening ceremony yesterday was attended was attended by over 300 guests, including Keppel Corporation chairman Lee Boon Yang.

    Keppel Land will also joint develop Empire City at a prime 14.6ha waterfront site in Ho Chi Minh City – a deal announced in March.

    The development will comprise premium residential units, office and retail properties as well as an 86-storey integrated mixed-use tower complex.

    Empire City – which is expected to commence construction later this year – is a joint venture project with Vietnamese companies Tien Phuoc Real Estate Joint Stock Company and Tran Thai Real Estate, as well as Hong Kong-based real estate private equity fund Gaw Capital Partners.

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  • HTHKH 1H profit falls 26%

    HTHKH 1H profit falls 26%

    Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings (HTHKH) has reported a 26% year-on-year decline in net profit for the first half of the year to HK$376 million ($48.5 million), due to weaker than expected smartphone sales.

    Total revenue fell 52% to HK$5.42 billion, with mobile revenue down a significant 62% to HK$3.47 billion.

    Hardware revenue shrank from HK$7.15 billion to HK$1.49 billion as a result of a lack of popular smartphones to sell during the period, the company said in its first-half report.

    Roaming revenue also declined 19%, or HK$87 million, contributing to a 6% decline in mobile net customer service revenue to HK$1.97 billion.

    HTHKH ended June with around 3.1 million customers in Hong Kong and Macau, including about 1.5 million postpaid customers. While the company’s postpaid base stayed largely flat compared to 2H15, churn was reduced to 1.3% from 1.9% over the same period.

    Blended local postpaid net ARPU grew 6% year-on-year to HK$168 as the launch of various new infotainment content and data plans resulted in the acquisition of more data centric customers.

    Fixed line service revenue for the half-year period meanwhile grew 4% year-on-year to HK$2.07 billion, due largely to an increase in revenue from the international and local carrier market. This was driven by growing data demand from OTT applications and IoT-related devices.

    Looking ahead, HTHKH chairman Canning Fok said the company is “planning ahead cautiously in the face of economic uncertainty locally and globally, after developing into a multi-play telecommunications service provider that launches a diversity of  products  and services to meet changing customer demand.”

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  • Mydin hypermarket chain founder dies at 88

    Mydin hypermarket chain founder dies at 88

    Mydin hypermarket chain founder Mydin Mohamed Ghulam Hussein died of old age at a private hospital in Kuala Lumpur today.

    His son, who is also Mydin Mohamed Holdings Bhd managing director, Ameer Ali Mydin, 60, said his 88-year-old father had died at 5.06pm.

    “My father was taken to hospital due to vomiting after he returned from (Mydin) outlet in (Jalan) Masjid India shortly after Zohor prayer time,” he said.

    He said the body would be buried after Zohor prayer on Wednesday at the Bukit Kiara Muslim Cemetery, after the return of his youngest son who is currently living in the United States.

    Born in Penang in 1928, Mydin Mohamed is survived by his wife Rowshan Bai, 80, and seven children.

    Ameer Ali said his father established the company in Kota Baru, Kelantan in 1957.

    “He was a highly disciplined person and punctual when dealing with others especially in business.

    “He often reminded his children to earn money in a ‘halal’ manner by running an honest business,” said the third child of the deceased.

     

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  • Singtel, Ericsson complete SEA’s first 5G demo

    Singtel, Ericsson complete SEA’s first 5G demo

    Singtel and Ericsson have completed the first live demonstration of 5G prototype technology, achieving a peak throughput of 27.5Gbps.

    The demonstration used Ericsson’s 5G radio prototypes to showcase the capabilities offered by the new networking technology, which also included demonstrating a latency as low as 2ms.

    At the demonstration, Singtel and Ericsson also showcased the world’s first end-to-end low latency live video streaming over 5G.

    Ericsson and Singel signed an MoU last year to collaborate on testing technology candidates for the 5G standard. Last week, the companies completed a live trial of pre-standard License Assisted Access (LAA) technology over Singtel’s 4G network.

    Singtel group CTO Tay Soo Meng said the collaboration is aimed at ensuring the operator’s customers have access to the latest mobile technologies.

    “We strive to upgrade our networks with cutting-edge enhancements, constantly offering our customers all the possibilities that technology brings. Singapore is at the forefront of the most connected cities in the world and now we want to take it to the next level,” he said.

    “5G is very important to the Singtel Group as it will support advanced communication needs. To ensure the Group continues our technology leadership in the mobile communications domain, we are exploring, studying and trialling pre-5G technologies with Ericsson.”

    The operator is preparing for the anticipated standardization of 5G in 2020 by deploying key pre-5G technologies including carrier aggregation, 256QAM and NB-IoT.

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  • Would you ever take investment advise from an app?

    Would you ever take investment advise from an app?

    Fintech firm 8 Securities said on Monday it plans to launch Hong Kong’s first so-called robo-investment advisor app in the next quarter, which it is calling “Chloe”, but experts remained divided on whether such an idea will every catch on in the city.

    Asia, and especially Hong Kong, is seen as lagging other international markets on the adoption of robo-advisors.

    Assets held by such robo-advisors in Hong Kong are expected to expand exponentially to US$20.6 billion by 2020 from the current US$400 million, according to a Boston-based research firm Aite Group’s latest robo-advisor forecast.

    The apps are powered by artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies developed in-house, and effectively learn day by day as a system’s user base and database grows, matching products to customers with different financial needs.

    That’s very different, of course, to what is offered by around 450 local brokers in Hong Kong, who have traded for decades, by offering personalised services based on close relationships, to hold onto clients.

    Mathias Helleu, 8 Securities’ executive chairman and co-founder, expects the Chloe app’s popularity to grow fast thanks to higher mobile penetration and lower entrance levels for users.

    “Chloe users will have the freedom to deposit or withdraw money from their portfolio anytime and with no penalty,” said Helleu. “The minimum investment amount with Chloe will be under HK$1,000.”

    In the West, the fledging robo-advisor industry is growing fast.

    By the end of 2015, US robo-advisor services had US$53 billion in assets under management, up from US$2 billion in 2013, according to statistics from the Aite Group. Key players include both startups such as FutureAdvisor, Bettermont and WealthFront, and big industry names, such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

    I do not expect robo-advisor apps to prove attractive in mature markets like Hong Kong. Here, retail investors consider their brokers or wealth managers more reliable

    Benny Mau, chairman of Hong Kong Securities Association

    However, that number of managed assets is still small compared with the US$20 trillion total investable assets by US retail investors.

    Traditional Hong Kong brokers, however, questioned on Monday whether local retail investors, many of whom still like going to bank branches or brokers shops to buy and discuss their investments, will ever use such an app.

    Benny Mau, chairman of Hong Kong Securities Association, the industry body, said: “I do not expect robo-advisor apps to prove attractive in mature markets like Hong Kong. Here, retail investors consider their brokers or wealth managers more reliable [than robo-advisors].”

    chloe app

    Mau also added Hong Kong investors are more rational than in other developing markets and a lot more cautious and selective as to which investment services they use.

    However, he did concede some young investors could find the service appealing.

    But Brett McGonegal, chief executive of Capital Link International, said robo-advisors are sweeping the investment world as they represent the pioneering wave of the fintech revolution.

    “This is critical in addressing the needs of a new investing group around the world — that’s millennials. “Platforms that blend human contact with technology will prove to be very successful amongst the new generation that often feel more comfortable communicating over electronic means rather than face to face,” McGonegal said.

    Jenny Lau, a recent graduate whose basic monthly salary is HK$21,000, said she would try her hand at Chloe because it has no penalty and is convenient to operate on her mobile phone.

    “The minimum investment of under HK$1,000 is no big deal for me,” she added.

    “But it will just be to satisfy my curiosity and I do not expect any high investment returns. I’ll not use it for my life saving goals.”

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  • Nippon Express, Alibaba to team up in China-bound shipping

    Nippon Express, Alibaba to team up in China-bound shipping

    Nippon Express will work with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding to ship Japanese goods to China for around 30% less than current prevailing rates.

    The Japanese shipper will transport goods from companies doing business on Alibaba’s TMall.com platform to China, while an Alibaba affiliate will handle home delivery. Goods can either be flown across the sea when ordered or shipped by surface in advance and stored in warehouses.

    Nippon Express is Japan’s largest business-to-business and international shipper, enabling it to hold down costs by purchasing space on ships and aircraft in bulk. In teaming up with TMall, which controls 60% of China’s online retail market, the shipper aims to handle half of all online purchases headed there from Japan.

    Currently, Japan Post ships 90% of online purchases traveling to China via airmail with its express-mail service. But a fee hike of around 30% in June to 1,400 yen ($13.68) for packages up to 500 grams has raised headwinds to the service’s use. Nippon Express will keep fees for similar items around 1,000 yen, aiming to pick up customers put off by the increase. Both services take four to six days for delivery in China.

    Nippon Express and Alibaba will also take on the complex business of dealing with customs for companies on TMall. China updated rules on cross-border e-commerce in April and now requires such information as what is being shipped, prices and logistics to be submitted electronically. Nippon Express will be the first Japanese logistics company to create a digital link with Alibaba allowing this data to be combined and submitted in one neat package.

    China’s cross-border e-commerce retail market is expected to grow roughly twelvefold from 2014 levels to $245 billion in 2020, according to U.S. professional services company Accenture.

    A number of Japanese companies are competing to offer better and cheaper shipping options to China, creating new chances for even smaller businesses here to access that enormous market. Yamato Holdings inked a partnership in April with companies including JD.com, TMall’s smaller rival, to offer international shipping and home delivery. ANA Holdings plans to offer a service handling everything from customs procedures to delivery starting in September.

    Such Japanese products as cosmetics and household goods have gained a sterling reputation for safety and quality in China. Consumers there are on track to buy 2.33 trillion yen ($22.8 billion) in goods from Japan online in 2019, according to the Japanese trade ministry. This is roughly triple the 2015 level.

    E-commerce is growing more important to Japanese companies as a source of continuous demand from China. This stands in contrast to consumption by Chinese tourists in Japan, who have been spending less per capita of late.

     

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  • Security on cloud still a major challenge for global firms, says study

    Security on cloud still a major challenge for global firms, says study

    Despite the continued importance of cloud computing resources to organizations, companies are not adopting appropriate governance and security measures to protect sensitive data in the cloud.

    This is just one of the findings of a Ponemon Institute study titled “The 2016 Global Cloud Data Security Study,” commissioned by digital security firm Gemalto.

    The study surveyed more than 3,400 IT and IT security practitioners worldwide to gain a better understanding of key trends in data governance and security practices for cloud-based services.

    According to 73% of respondents, cloud-based services and platforms are considered important to their organization’s operations and 81% said they will be more so over the next two years. In fact, 36% of respondents said their companies’ total IT and data processing needs were met using cloud resources today and that they expected this to increase to 45% over the next two years.

    Although cloud-based resources are becoming more important to companies’ IT operations and business strategies, 54% of respondents did not agree their companies have a proactive approach to managing security and complying with privacy and data protection regulations in cloud environments. This is despite the fact that 65% of respondents said their organizations are committed to protecting confidential or sensitive information in the cloud. Furthermore, 56% did not agree their organization is careful about sharing sensitive information in the cloud with third parties such as business partners, contractors and vendors.
    Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of Ponemon Institute, said, “Cloud security continues to be a challenge for companies, especially in dealing with the complexity of privacy and data protection regulations.”

    “To ensure compliance, it is important for companies to consider deploying such technologies as encryption, tokenization or other cryptographic solutions to secure sensitive data transferred and stored in the cloud,” Ponemon said.

    Jason Hart, VP and CTO for Data Protection at Gemalto, said, “Organizations have embraced the cloud with its benefits of cost and flexibility but they are still struggling with maintaining control of their data and compliance in virtual environments.”

    “It’s quite obvious security measures are not keeping pace because the cloud challenges traditional approaches of protecting data when it was just stored on the network. It is an issue that can only be solved with a data-centric approach in which IT organizations can uniformly protect customer and corporate information across the dozens of cloud-based services their employees and internal departments rely every day,” Hart said.
    More customer information is being stored in the cloud and is considered the data most at risk.
    According to the survey, customer information, emails, consumer data, employee records and payment information are the types of data most often stored in the cloud. Since 2014, the storage of customer information in the cloud has increased the most, from 53% in 2014 to 62% of respondents saying their company was doing this today.

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  • Millennials driving force behind Taobao Marketplace

    Millennials driving force behind Taobao Marketplace

    Millennials are the driving force behind Taobao Marketplace, with more than 70 percent of buyers in their 20s and 30s, according to Chris Tung, chief marketing officer at Alibaba Group.

    “As users continue to engage with the platform in more meaningful ways, we are fostering next-generation consumption features, such as virtual reality, to transcend the overall user experience,” he said in a media statement during the Taobao Maker Festival held recently at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition Center.

    The festival celebrates Taobao merchants by showcasing creative ideas and designs to the world, including gadgets, fashion and high-tech products. The festivities also include various performances by artists, music groups and celebrities from across Asia.

    Created in 2003 as an online shopping destination for Chinese consumers, Taobao Marketplace has evolved into an interactive lifestyle platform driven by a young consumer population who wants to do more than just shop.

    “It is a destination for innovators, entrepreneurs and creatives to showcase and experiment amongst a community of 423 million Chinese consumers on our China retail marketplaces that come to Mobile Taobao to explore, discover and be entertained,” explained Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group.

    In 2010, Alibaba Group launched the Mobile Taobao app to transition its flagship C2C shopping platform to more a interactive platform to explore opportunities in mobile commerce.

    Today, the Taobao platform supports millions of entrepreneurs across China with user engagement across e-commerce, digital media, travel, social and local services. On average , it has around 150 million daily active users on Mobile Taobao. Users launch the Taobao app an average of seven times per day and spend more than 20 minutes each day on the app. They browse an average of 19 products during a 24-hour period,

    Moreover, mobile Taobao users post more than 20 million reviews and comments every day.

    “We hope the Taobao Maker Festival will inspire young makers to continue innovating and reaching the world through the Taobao ecosystem,” Tung said.

  • Vietnam real estate giant opens five-star hotel in Myanmar

    Vietnam real estate giant opens five-star hotel in Myanmar

    Vietnamese realty group Hoang Anh Gia Lai on Sunday put into operation a five-star hotel in Yangon, Myanmar.

    The hotel is housed in the group’s Myanmar Center, located some eight kilometers from downtown Yangon, on Kaba Aye Pagoda Road in Bahan Township.

    Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) Group is one of the leading real estate companies in Vietnam that focuses on the development of residential and commercial real estate in many principal economic centers, including Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang City.

    The company has been expanding regionally with real estate projects in Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

    Myanmar Center is a modern architectural ensemble made up of offices, retail spaces, residential units and a five-star hotel, with a total investment of US$440 million, Vo Truong Son, general director of HAGL Group, said at the inauguration ceremony.

    The project is divided into two phases, the first of which consists of two grade-A office towers, one retail podium and a five-star hotel, while the second comprises two additional grade-A office towers and five residential blocks.

    Operated by hotel chain Meliá Hotels International, one of Spain’s largest operators of hotel and holiday resorts, the five-star Meliá Yangon inaugurated on Sunday has 430 suites and a 2,000 square meter conference area.

    melia hotel

    Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and senior officials of Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia also attended the inaugural ceremony.

    According to Myanmarese Minister of Hotels and Tourism U Htay Aung, HAGL’s Myanmar Center is the largest foreign-invested real estate project in the country at the moment.

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  • Robinsons Retail buys stake in De Oro Pacific

    Robinsons Retail buys stake in De Oro Pacific

    Robinsons Retail Holdings Incorporated has acquired a majority stake in De Oro Pacific Home Plus Depot, a big box builders hardware depot with 3-store chain in Northern Mindanao.

    The Gokongwei-led firm told the Philippine Stock Exchange that its subsidiary RHI Builders and Contractors Depot Corporation’s acquisition will add to its big box hardware portfolio.

    contract-signing-

    De Oro Pacific Home Plus Depot started operating in 1993. The stores are located in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City with combined gross floor area of approximately 9,400 square meters.

    The company also operates a 3,000-square-meter warehouse in Cagayan do Oro that supports the 3 De Oro Pacific Home Plus Depot stores.

    “The purchase of De Oro Pacific Home Plus Depot stores demonstrates the bullish stance of Robinsons Retail group in the do-it-yourself (DIY) business which is currently rising to the sustained growth of the construction sector driven by the huge backlog in residential building,” the company said.

    In June 2014, Robinsons Retail acquired RHI Builders and Contractors Depot, owner and operator of 17-big box hardware chain AM Builders Home Depot based in the Visayas.

    All stores have been renamed Robinsons Builders.

    As of end June 2016, Robinsons Retail operates 152 mall-based DIY hardware stores, including 132 Handyman Do It Best stores, 19 True Value stores, and two True Home stores.

    Robinsons Retail is one of the leading multi-format retail groups in the Philippines and enjoys market leading positions across all its business segments.

    It currently operates 10 retail formats under 6 business segments, including department stores, supermarkets, home improvement stores, convenience stores, drug stores, and specialty stores.

    For 2016, the group earlier said it plans to spend P5 billion in capital expenditures, up from P3.14 billion actual spending in 2015, as it plans to roll out more stores this year.

    The retail firm is also targeting same-store-sales growth of 2% to 3% and gross profit margin increase of between 10 to 20 basis points.

    As of end 2015, Robinsons Retail operates 1,506 stores with total gross floor area of 974,000 square meters.

  • NTT Com to launch MVNE platform in HK

    NTT Com to launch MVNE platform in HK

    NTT Com and fellow NTT Group member Dimension Data have teamed up to launch Hong Kong’s first mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) platform.

    The service will allow MVNOs access to the infrastructure required to deliver 3G and 4G data services in the city. The platform will manage all mobile data connections, policy control, billing and signaling.

    NTT Com’s platform will use NFV architecture to ensure it will be scalable to future demand, and will be able to provide a quick turnaround by removing the requirement for functions to run on expensive proprietary hardware. The NFV approach was proposed by Dimension Data.

    NTT Com Asia CTO Taylor Man said Dimension Data is an ideal partner for the project.

    “Delivering a MNVE solution requires heavy upfront investment in specialized equipment, and high scalability and agility is required to cater to customer demand time,” he said.

    “It is crucial to find a partner that could work hand in hand with us to provide the required infrastructure to deliver on our MVNE ambitions. We believe that partnering with our group company Dimension Data would be an ideal option.”

    ICT product and service provider Dimension Data became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NTT Group in 2010.

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  • Krispy Kreme snapped up by retail giant

    Krispy Kreme snapped up by retail giant

    Corporate retailer JAB Holdings has successfully concluded its purchase of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, a deal first mooted in May.

    As a result, share-trading on the NYSE has ceased as the ‘sweet treat’ maker becomes part of a global retail portfolio of retailers as diverse as Coty and Jimmy Choo.

    Privately-owned JAB Holdings’ portfolio includes controlling stakes in Bally, Belstaff, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Espresso House in Scandinavia, Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE), the largest pure-play FMCG coffee company in the world, and a minority stake in Reckitt Benckiser.

    Under the terms of the latest transaction, Krispy Kreme shareholders will receive US$21 per share in cash.

    Krispy Kreme, founded in 1937, today boasts more than 1100 shops in more than 26 countries around the world.

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