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13.06.19 8 FOREIGN NEWS SPAIN'S Inditex, the world's largest cloth- ing retailer, has reiterated its focus on global and digital expansion after report- ing a jump in first-quarter profits, despite adverse weather tempering sales growth. Net sales came in at €5.93bn, a 5% im- provement on the same period a year earlier, while net profit rose 10% to €734m. Zara-owner Inditex said that profits had been boosted by "sales growth in all geographies and at every brand". So far this year, Inditex has launched integrat- ed store and online platforms in nine countries, including Brazil, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. e company added: "e first part of the year was particularly intense in terms of the group's digital transformation pol- icy, with significant developments in the expansion of the integrated platform." In-store and online sales across all brands, which include Pull&Bear and Massimo Dutti, were ahead 6.5% in lo- cal currencies between 1 February and 7 June. at was slightly weaker than ana- lysts had been looking for, after wet and cold weather throughout most of South- ern Europe towards the end of the first quarter slowed sales growth. However, current trading saw in-store and online sales surge 9.5% between 1 May and 7 June. Inditex also reiterat- ed its guidance for full-year life-for-like sales growth of between 4% and 6%. Inditex is focusing on significantly ramp- ing up its digital presence world-wide, in response to changing shopping habits and the dramatic growth of online-only retailers. Chief operating officer Carlos Crespo is taking over the chief executive role from current incumbent and chair- man Pablo Isla as part of the company's refocus on its digital footprint. Isla said the first quarter underscored the "strong momentum in the digital transformation of the integrated store and online sales platform and in sustain- ability as a key pillar of the company's strategy". RBC said Inditex's first-quarter sales were softer than expected, but had re- bounded strongly so far in the second quarter. It added: "We continue to favour Indi- tex for its strong business model, as we expect underlying operating leverage to return in the 2020 full year and as free cashflow should improve as operating expenses and capital intensity reduc- es, which is enabling Inditex to deliver above-average cash returns." Global ex- pansion bolsters profits at Zara owner Inditex. Global expansion bolsters profits at Zara owner Inditex FACEBOOK is opening an engineering centre in London as part of its strategy to keep harmful content away from its platform. e new centre which will build tools and artificial intelli- gence (AI) systems to detect and remove harmful content and be- haviour from the social media site, will create more than 500 jobs by the end of the year. e company said on Wednes- day that a fifth of the jobs will been in AI, while "a significant number" will be in the compa- ny's community integrity team, which works on stopping spam and abuse, removing fake ac- counts and addressing violence and personal safety. e new office in Soho will take the number of Facebook London employees to more than 3,000 people across its three sites in the capital - the social media giant's biggest en- gineering hub outside of the US. e company said that 1,800 Facebook London staff will be employed in technology and engineering by the end of the year. Announcing the investment at London Tech Week, Nico- la Mendelsohn, Facebook's vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said: "Safety is our top priority at Facebook and over the last two years we've substantially in- creased our investment in this area. "ese hundreds of new jobs demonstrate not only our com- mitment to the UK but also our determination to do everything we can to keep Facebook safe and secure. "Many of these new roles will accelerate our artificial intel- ligence work in London as we continue developing technol- ogy to proactively detect and remove malicious content." Commenting on the an- nouncement, Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright said: "e UK is uniquely placed to spearhead the digital transformation of society and our modern Indus- trial Strategy aims to use the power of technology to change people's lives for the better. "I welcome this new Face- book investment. It is a timely reminder we have the skills, location and language digital firms need to succeed, and a positive step which will see UK expertise helping to develop tech solutions to tackle harm- ful behaviour worldwide." Antony Walker, Deputy CEO of technology industry um- brella techUK, said: "is is a significant announcement that demonstrates the continued investment that Facebook is making in safety technology and its commitment to the UK as a development hub. "e UK has world class ca- pabilities in AI and these new jobs will help to strengthen the UK's skills base and strengthen its tech ecosystem." Britain is looking to be a dom- inant force in the emerging AI market, leading the govern- ment to commission research into how the artificial intelli- gence industry can be grown in the UK. e research, published in 2017, was carried out by com- puter scientist Professor Dame Wendy Hall and Jerome Pesen- ti, Facebook's vice president of AI. Facebook to launch London hub to fight harmful content

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