Weekly News Wrap: Uniqlo unsure on future pandemic impact; Reliance mulls bringing e-commerce app in WhatsApp

And Samsung Electronics heir was sentenced over bribery charges.

From Reuters:

Fast Retailing, which operates Uniqlo, said that it was difficult to predict the impact of the pandemic beyond the next several months, an uncertainty some analysts said could limit further gains in the shares which hit record highs ahead of the results.

Fast Retailing has widely been viewed as one of the most resilient retailers during the pandemic, despite suffering a hit in the early days from its dependence on China for both manufacturing and sales.

The company runs about 800 Uniqlo stores in mainland China, roughly the same number as in its home market, Japan.

“For now we are fully on track to meet our forecast for the year,” CFO Takeshi Okazaki told reporters, referring to its earlier full-year estimate in sales. “But the lack of visibility with the coronavirus means a possibility of a big fluctuation.”

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From Reuters:

Reliance Industries plans to embed its ecommerce app JioMart into WhatsApp within six months, financial daily Mint reported on Monday, as the Indian conglomerate looks to ramp up its retail and grocery business in the country.

Reliance, which has been trying to move away from its mainstay oil and energy business, had last year raised about $26b from investors like Google and Facebook for its digital and retail arms as it takes on Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart in India.

The move to integrate JioMart with WhatsApp will allow hundreds of millions of users to order products from Reliance without having to leave the app. At last count, WhatsApp had about 400 million users in India. Facebook invested $5.7b for a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms last year.

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From Bloomberg:

Samsung Electronics heir Jay Lee was sentenced to 30 months in prison over bribery charges, a dramatic setback for the world’s biggest electronics company as it tries to move beyond a years-long scandal that inflamed outrage over the cozy relationships between government and business.

In the dispute, Lee was accused of offering horses and other payments to a friend of the former president to win support for his formal succession at the corporation. The Supreme Court upheld a 20-year prison term for Park last week, citing wide-ranging charges including bribery related to Samsung. Lee still faces a second prosecution related to succession.

Shares of Samsung Electronics fell 3.4% after the sentencing.

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