Carrefour to return to India

PARIS: French retail giant Carrefour announced Monday that it will return to India by June 2025 in a franchise partnership with Dubai firm Apparel Group, a decade after leaving the country. Carrefour pulled out of the Indian market in 2014, closing five wholesale stores after only a four-year presence in the country. The supermarket group did not say how many stores may open in India. With its population of more than 1.4 billion, “India is a strategic market pulled by economic growth, urbanization and the growing purchasing power of consumers”, Carrefour said in a statement. — AFP

Ukraine currency liberalization

KIEV: Ukraine’s central bank on Monday announced the next stage of currency liberalization, saying the measures would support the country’s defense capability and Ukrainian businesses. The central bank introduced its largest wartime currency liberalization measures in May, aiming to ease restrictions on businesses after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion prompted the imposition of tough restrictions. The new measures listed on the bank’s website included allowing state-owned companies to purchase foreign currency and transfer it to non-residents to buy quotas to offset carbon dioxide emissions from aviation. — Reuters

German minimum wage hike

BERLIN: Germany should raise its minimum wage to over 15 euros ($16.59)per hour from 2026, Labour Minister Hubertus Heil told a government-appointed minimum wage commission in a letter seen by Reuters on Monday. Heil called on the commission - a body made up of employers and trade union representatives - to implement the requirements of the EU minimum wage directive, which sets it at at least 60 percent of the average wage for full-time employees. According to current calculations by the German Trade Union Confederation DGB, this would be 15.27 euros per hour in 2025. — Reuters

Hostmore not to buy TGI Fridays

LONDON: Shares of Hostmore plunged more than 70 percent on Monday as the British restaurant operator dropped plans to buy TGI Fridays after it was removed as the manager of TGIF Funding, which owns the right to collect royalties from the pub chain franchise. “The predictable and highly cash-generative royalty stream of TGI Fridays was the primary attractive feature for the Group in pursuing the acquisition,” Hostmore said. Hostmore, which operates pub chain TGI Fridays in the UK via its unit Thursdays (UK), said the sale of its corporate stores is expected to be completed in September, albeit at a lower value than the loans held by Thursdays. — Reuters

China Renaissance shares fall

HONG KONG: Shares in Hong Kong-listed investment bank China Renaissance plummeted on Monday as the company resumed trading after a 17-month hiatus linked to the disappearance of chairman Bao Fan. Billionaire Bao went missing last year and the firm then announced that he was “cooperating” in an official investigation, sparking fears of a renewed crackdown on China’s finance sector. The bank published its annual results for 2022 and 2023 last week, as well as results for the first half of this year, reversing its trading suspension on the Hong Kong stock exchange. — AFP