Sweden's H&M swings to deep loss as sales go down 50% due to Covid-19

Sweden's H&M, the world's second-greatest style retailer, saw the pandemic pound it to a marginally more profound than anticipated misfortune in the subsequent quarter and said it was sloping up store terminations even as exchange gradually rose up out of lockdown hibernation.
H&M, which had cautioned in April it would swing into a misfortune in the three months through May, said it had expanded value cuts, which crushed the gross edge, and cautioned of a significant level of markdowns additionally in the second from last quarter.
"Fast changes in accordance with item buying and purchasing plans implied that the stock-in-exchange had the option to be decreased to some degree in the subsequent quarter contrasted and the earlier year," Chief Executive Helena Helmersson said in an announcement.
"Be that as it may, since there is an oversupply of spring items all through the business, and the market stays debilitated, we expect markdowns according to deals to increment again in the second from last quarter."
Pretax misfortune was 6.5 billion crowns ($695 million) against a year-sooner benefit of 5.9 billion. Investigators had on normal conjecture a 6.4 billion crown misfortune, as per Refinitiv information.
H&M said deals so far in June were down 25% in neighborhood monetary standards. It had on June 15 detailed a half drop in second-quarter deals as measures to slow the Covid-19 pandemic pummeled the division.

H&M said 7% of its in excess of 5,000 stores remained briefly shut against around 80% at the tallness of lockdowns. It said it would accelerate terminations and open less new stores this year than recently arranged, bringing about a net decrease in stores.

Nykaa on its way to become the next billion-dollar Indian company

Company News

Nykaa, an omni-channel retailer of beauty products, could well be on its way to become the next billion-dollar Indian company. The Mumbai-based start-up has raised Rs 100 crore from private equity firm TPG Growth at a valuation of $724 million, company filings sourced from business intelligence platform Paper.vc, showed.

This means, in just six months, the company’s valuation has more than doubled. In September 2018, when Lighthouse Advisors invested Rs 113 crore to buy out early investor TVS Capital, Nykaa was valued at $330 million. Earlier, in 2018, the start-up had also raised Rs 160 crore through primary and secondary share sale.

TPG comes in as the first large foreign investor in the company. As a growth-stage investor, TPG has backed several businesses in India including Lenskart, BookMyShow, Janalakshmi Finance and Manipal Hospitals. The round marks a renewed interest by investors in niche e-commerce firms, especially when some players in the beauty category are struggling.

“TPG Growth’s Rs 100 crore investment gives Nykaa a spectacular jump in post-money valuation. The private equity firm’s investment gives Nykaa a Rs 5,027 crore ($724 million) valuation. The raise comes after a long hiatus in institutional investment in the cosmetic platform,” said Vivek Durai, founder of Paper.vc.

Durai said, the handsome jump in valuation can be attributed to Nykaa’s strong performance in the recent years. It more than doubled its revenue in FY17-18 to Rs 578 crore and narrowed losses 23 per cent at Rs 28.8 crore year-on-year, according to Paper.vc.


 Nykaa was started in 2012 by former investment banker Falguni Nayar. She was the managing director at Kotak Investment Banking...Read More