Finance & Capital Management

Washington, D.C. -- The National Retail Federation praised the Senate’s passage on Wednesday of Trade Promotion Authority

True Value Company is expanding its presence in Puerto Rico, part of a long-term strategy to boost its global presence.

Orlando, Fla. - Darden Restaurants Inc. plans to separate a portion of its real estate assets through a combination of sale leaseback transactions and a new, publicly traded real estate investment trust ("REIT"). Under the plan, Darden will transfer approximately 430 of its corporate stores to the REIT, with substantially all of the REIT's initial assets being leased back to Darden.  

New York - Kate Spade & Co. is naming Emilia Fabricant as executive VP, president of North America, effective June 29. In this role, Fabricant will oversee the company's North America business, with responsibilities across all distribution channels, and will report to Craig A. Leavitt, CEO.  

Seattle - Nordstrom Inc. has appointed Tanya Domier, CEO of Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC (ASM) to the company's board of directors. Her addition brings the total number of directors to 14 and the number of independent directors to 11.

Hong Kong – A subsidiary of global export company Li & Fung is partnering with two Chinese department store retailers to open as many as 300 stores in the Shanghai free trade zone. Li & Fung Trading (China) Holdings Ltd. is forming a joint venture with Shanghai Bailian Group Co. Ltd. and Beijing Wangfujing Department Store (Group) Co. Ltd. Li & Fung holds a 20% stake and each department store chain owns a 40% stake.

Menlo Park, Calif. – Facebook may not have anywhere near the retail sales volume of Wal-Mart, but in at least one important financial metric the social media network has overtaken Wal-Mart. According to the Associated Press, Facebook has knocked Wal-Mart out of the Standard & Poor’s list of the top 10 most valuable stocks.

Ann Arbor, Mich. - Customer satisfaction with goods and services purchased and consumed in the U.S. suffered a fifth consecutive quarterly decline, sending the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to its lowest point since 2006. According to the ACSI, the national level of customer satisfaction is down 0.7% to 74.7 on a 100-point scale in the first quarter of 2015 and is off 2.7% since peaking in the fourth quarter 2013.