Finance & Capital Management

Phoenix -- Sprouts Farmers Market said it has completed a new five-year, $450 million revolving credit facility to replace its existing term loan and revolving credit facility.

Retailers with a presence in Denver, San Antonio, Nashville, Fort Lauderdale and Dallas should expect strong sales in the months ahead based on a new report which identifies those cities as the nation’s hottest housing market.

St. Louis -- One of St. Louis’ oldest public companies and one of the nation’s most diverse footwear companies, Brown Shoe Company, is putting a new foot forward and changing its name to “Caleres,” a Latin word that means “passionate, to glow.” The Brown name, however, will live on in a new men’s footwear business called Brown Shoe Bootmakers that the company plans to launch in 2016.

Corporate identities don’t get more generic than Brown Shoe Company which helps explain the shift to a new name but most customers won’t even notice.

Washington, D.C. – The National Retail Federation (NRF) and Gap Inc. are both asking Congress to approve legislation that would reauthorize Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), saying such authority is critical to advancing free trade agreements.

New York -- Office Depot, Walmart, Target, Macy’s and CVS Health are among the top companies for women’s business endeavors, according to the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). The list is designed to recognize organizations that integrate policies and programs across the corporation to enable growth and reduce barriers for women-owned businesses; increasing opportunity in new markets – both domestically, and international; fueling innovation; and empowering communities through economic growth and job creation.

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Etsy Inc., the online marketplace for handmade arts, crafts and clothing, has gone public with a bang. Shares opened on Thursday at $31 a share, almost twice their initial public offering price. As of April 16, Etsy is trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol “ETSY.”

After the offering, the total number of shares outstanding will be 110.9 million. Based on the opening price, Etsy is valued at over $3.7 billion.

Former Walmart CEO and current board member Mike Duke is the newest operating executive at the Carlyle Group, which suggests the pace of deal-making activity in the retail and consumer packaged goods world could be about to heat up.