Page 25 - ARUBA TODAY

BUSINESS Thursday 30 March 2017
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Lululemon’s shares drop after weak outlook reported

ANNE D’INNOCENZIO growth in both earnings of merchandise it offered to double sales to $4 billion sent the stock tumbling.
AP Retail Writer and revenue for its fiscal shoppers and with visual by 2020, push innovation Lululemon recalled thou-
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares fourth quarter. merchandising. Potdevin in products like swimwear sands of its stretchy black
of Lululemon Athletica Inc. CEO Laurent Potdevin, who promised that people will and menswear, add more yoga pants after customer
fell more than 17 percent took the helm in 2014, said see more color as early as stores in North America and complaints that they were
Wednesday after the ath- that 2016 marked a mile- next week. catch up in e-commerce. too sheer.
letic-inspired sportswear stone year where the com- Lululemon has generally Lululemon has nearly 400 Since then, the company
company said it’d had a pany returned to positive benefited from the shift in stores globally in the U.S., relaunched its website
slow start to the year and operating income growth athletic wear becoming Europe, Asia, Australia and and improved its inven-
offered a weaker outlook for the first time in three everyday fashion. But it’s elsewhere. tory search to let shoppers
than expected for the cur- years. But he acknowl- also faced stiffer competi- The CEO also has been re- check in its app whether
rent quarter. edged that Lululemon had tion from brands like Victo- building after a major prod- items are in stock at a par-
The company known for its issues in the early part of this ria’s Secret, Gap and H&M. uct hitch in 2013 that cost
yoga gear did report solid year with the assortment Potdevin has said he wants the company millions and ticular store. q

Toshiba says Westinghouse files for bankruptcy protection

YURI KAGEYAMA told reporters after the an-
AP Business Writer nouncement.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Toshiba reiterated its view
embattled Toshiba Corp. that at the root of the prob-
said Wednesday that its lem was the acquisition of
U.S. nuclear unit Westing- U.S. nuclear construction
house Electric Co. has filed company CB&I Stone and
for bankruptcy protection, Webster. It declined com-
marking a key step in its ment on possible future
struggles to stop the flow of partners in the rehabilita-
massive red ink. tion of Westinghouse.
Toshiba said in a statement Toshiba, which has been
that it filed the Chapter 11 unable to report its financial
petition in the U.S. Bank- results as required, post-
ruptcy Court of New York. poning it into next month,
The move had been large- said it would monitor the
ly expected. rehabilitation proceedings
Toshiba has said it’s ex- and disclose information as
pecting a loss of 500 billion quickly as possible.
yen ($4.3 billion) for April- Its chairman has resigned
December of last year, in- to take responsibility for the
cluding a 712.5 billion yen This photo shows the cooling towers, right, and nuclear reactor containment buildings area, left, at company’s troubles.
Plant Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Waynesboro, Ga. Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear
($6.2 billion) hit from its em- unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, March 29, 2017, calling Auditors questioned Toshi-
battled nuclear business. into question the future of a number of billion-dollar nuclear projects under construction, including ba’s latest reporting on the
It said Wednesday that it two in the U.S. acquisition of CB&I Stone
was working out revised (AP Photo/John Bazemore) & Webster after a whis-
numbers, and warned that tleblower, an employee
the loss for the fiscal year nuclear disaster in Fuku- Toshiba has been eager lion. at Westinghouse, wrote
may grow to 1 trillion yen shima, costs of the busi- to get Westinghouse off its Toshiba President Satoshi a letter to the Westing-
($9 billion). ness have ballooned be- books to improve its plight, Tsunakawa said the move house president.
Toshiba acquired Westing- cause of growing safety and it said it would do just was aimed at “shutting out The company’s reputation
house in 2006 with much concerns and regulations, that from this fiscal year. It risks from the overseas nu- has also been tarnished in
fanfare, making nuclear and a souring of sentiment has said earlier it wants to clear business.” recent years by a scandal
power an important part toward nuclear power in sell Westinghouse. Toshiba “We want to make this our over the doctoring of ac-
of its business strategy. some countries, such as said Westinghouse had first step toward recover- counting books to meet
After the March 2011 Germany. racked up debt of $9.8 bil- ing our solid business,” he unrealistic profit targets. q

EU blocks merger of Deutsche Boerse, London Stock Exchange

GEIR MOULSON the stock exchanges of change said last month income clearing services in havioral measures,” but
Associated Press Germany, Britain and Italy that it couldn’t commit to Europe,” Vestager said. couldn’t demonstrate that
BERLIN (AP) — European as well as several of the selling its majority stake in Deutsche Boerse and LSE they would have been ef-
regulators blocked the biggest European clearing the electronic bond market did offer to sell the French- fective, Vestager said.
proposed merger of Ger- houses. MTS, which would have al- based part of LCH.Clear- The companies an-
many’s Deutsche Boerse EU antitrust chief Margrethe leviated the EU’s concerns. net, but regulators found nounced the all-stock
and the London Stock Ex- Vestager said the deal The deal would have com- that its business depends deal in March 2016, three
change on Wednesday, “would have significantly bined Deutsche Boerse’s on trading feeds from It- months before British voters
saying it would effectively reduced competition by Frankfurt-based clearing aly-based MTS. They said decided in a referendum
have created a Europe- creating a de facto mo- house, Eurex, with LSE’s they couldn’t determine to leave the European
an monopoly in clearing nopoly in the crucial area LCH.Clearnet and Rome- whether LCH.Clearnet SA Union.
bonds. of fixed income instruments based Cassa di Compen- would have been a viable Based on their stock mar-
They shot down the pair’s (such as bonds).” sazione e Garanzia. “They competitor. The compa- ket value at the time, their
third attempt at a merger, The decision was expect- are basically the only com- nies also offered “a quite combined market value
which would have united ed after the London ex- panies that provide fixed complex bundle of be- was about $30 billion.q