H&M to close its 250 shops in 2021 to shift in online selling  

On Thursday, H&M (HM-B) announced its plans to close its 250 shops in 2021 as online shopping demand became very popular amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Moreover, the world’s second-biggest fashion retailer reported a smaller than expected drop in its third-quarter profit.

“Although the challenges are far from over, we believe that the worst is behind us and we are well placed to come out of the crisis stronger,” H&M’s Chief Executive Officer Helena Helmersson said.

Although the Swedish multinational clothing-retail company said that its sales had continued to recover in September 2020, H&M was still 5% lower than the same month last year.

“Overall, Q3 is a better quarter than expected and we think H&M continued to manage well what they could directly influence. We think that the market is still not fully appreciating the improved quality of the H&M business model and infrastructure. We think instead that this set of results is further proof that H&M turnaround is still very much well on track,” JP Morgan’s (JPM) analyst said in a note.

On Thursday, H&M’s shares climbed by 6.0% in the morning trade.