News in brief: Tuesday, June 4

Intu appoints new finance boss

Embattled shopping centre owner Intu has appointed Robert Allen as its chief financial officer.

Allen most recently served as finance boss at Crest Nicholson, and prior to that served in a number of senior finance roles at British American Tobacco.

His appointment comes after Intu’s former finance boss Matthew Roberts was promoted to the role of chief executive. Barbara Gibbes, who had taken on the CFO role on an interim basis, will revert to her director of finance role, reporting in to Allen. 

Roberts said: “I am delighted that Robert is joining us. He will bring to intu his extensive and highly relevant experience of refinancings, M&A, treasury, IT and investor relations, helping drive our strategy of delivering strong underlying centre performance, adapting to the fast-changing retail environment and making smart use of capital.”

Sephora shutters stores for diversity training

Sephora will close all of its US stores, warehouses and offices tomorrow for diversity training.

The move comes after R&B star SZA tweeted that security was called on her in one of Sephora’s 700 shops “to make sure I wasn’t stealing”.

The cosmetics powerhouse, which is owned by LVMH, said it would host “inclusion workshops” for staff, adding: “These values have always been at the heart of Sephora, and we’re excited to welcome everyone when we reopen.”