• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, November 24, 2009 10:44 AM

Jet-setting François-Henri Pinault, CEO of PPR SA (and husband of actress Salma Hayek), tells Christina Passariello and Mimosa Spencer that he is going to sell the company's once-core French retail business -- which includes the Fnac and Conforama chains and the mail-order catalog business Redcats -- to focus on developing its high-end Yves Saint Laurent and mass-market Puma fashion labels.

Analysts believe the company, which is 41% owned by Pinault's family, could get as much as $6 billion for the retail business. The reason for selling is that retail "cannot develop quickly abroad," because it takes consumers a long time to warm up to an unfamiliar name, Pinault says -- a sentiment that Abercrombie & Fitch may want to keep in mind (see above), but that has been largely disproven by McDonald's (see below).

Pinault was interviewed extensively for the piece, which provides a detailed look in the history of his ascendancy in the business and the thinking behind his decision to divest the retail operations. There's not a lot about what he intends to do with the fashion brands, however, beyond possibly acquiring another label geared towards outdoor activities to bolster Puma in the mass market.

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