LVMH to sell Donna Karan

For only the second time in its almost 30-year history, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the largest luxury conglomerate in the world, is selling a fashion brand. On Monday, the French company said it had agreed to sell Donna Karan International to G-III Apparel Group, the American manufacturing and licensing company that holds the licences for Ivanka Trump, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.

It said the transaction had an enterprise value, a figure based on its stock-market valuation plus the net debt on its books, of US$650 million (S$882 million).

Plans for the sale come more than a year after Donna Karan retired from the house that bears her name and LVMH announced a new strategy for the company.

Final Bowie musical to run in London

Lazarus, the science-fiction musical co-written by David Bowie, will return to the stage, this time in London.

The rock legend wrote the music for the production, which premiered in New York.

An opening gala in December marked his last public appearance before he died on Jan 10 from cancer.

King's Cross Theatre in London said Lazarus, a coveted ticket in New York even before Bowie's death, would open on Oct 25 and run until Jan 22.

Directed by Belgian dramatist Ivo van Hove, Lazarus will feature much of the New York cast. Michael C. Hall, best known from television series Dexter, will return in the lead role of Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien who arrives on Earth in search of water and discovers he cannot return as he discovers the delights of alcohol and television.