Global threads manufacturing giant Coats Group is quitting its US Yarns business, resulting the closure of its Performance Materials (PM) facility based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
It comes after a strategic review of the wider Americas yarns business that has already resulted in the closure of the Toluca, Mexico facility in December. The review, which started in Q4 2024, concludes that the Americas Yarns business doesn’t fit with Coats’ future strategy, noting the exit from this non-core operation “will result in a positive annualised impact to both the PM and Group adjusted EBIT margins”.
The exit process is expected to complete in Q2 and Coats said it anticipates to generate a modest cash inflow, after closure costs, that will “allow management to focus on driving forward and growing other parts of the group’s attractive portfolio.
In 2024, revenues and EBIT for US Yarns was $68 million and $3 million, respectively.
Last month, Coats delivered a trading statement that highlighted “strong delivery, exciting medium-term targets with compounding cash and earnings growth”.
While the business reported a string of positives for the year ended 31 December (total revenues up 8% to $1.5 billion; apparel and footwear revenues up 13%; EBIT up 16%), it also noted that the PM business continued to drag across all North America end markets while there was also structural softness in North American Yarns.
The writing was perhaps on the wall for the future of its US PM ops in a statement that included that its Americas manufacturing footprint had been “right-sized” in Q4 with the closure of the Toluca site “to align to structural softness in North American Yarns [that will] drive immediate margin improvement”.
Swedish fintech Klarna has paused its plans for a U.S. initial public offering as President Donald Trump‘s sweeping tariffs rattle global markets, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Reuters
The decision would complicate an uneven recovery for the U.S. IPO market, as the company’s listing was seen as a potential catalyst for encouraging others to follow.
Klarna could reassess its plans if market conditions stabilize, the people said.
While hopes of a recovery were high in 2025, some of the new entrants to the IPO market have seen muted receptions.
LNG exporter Venture Global’s shares have dropped since its January debut. AI infrastructure firm CoreWeave’s shares dipped on their first day of trading, but have climbed since then.
Fears of a trade war have crushed stocks after Trump unveiled the sweeping tariffs plan this week that could weigh on the global economy.
“This kind of market instability naturally makes any company, regardless of sector, hit the brakes on near-term IPO plans,” said Lukas Muehlbauer, research analyst at IPOX.
Klarna was aiming to raise more than $1 billion at a valuation exceeding $15 billion, according to media reports.
It had 93 million active customers on its platform and operations in 26 countries as of 2024 end, according to its IPO filing.
The company had soared to a valuation of $45.6 billion in 2021, but that has tempered since as the pandemic-driven surge in online spending moderated.
Klarna did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the plans, said the company had decided to postpone marketing its shares, originally scheduled for this week.
Meanwhile, U.S. stocks fell sharply for a second straight session on Friday, pushing the Nasdaq toward a bear market.
Shares in companies that have large manufacturing operations in Vietnam, including Nike Inc. and Lululemon Athletica Inc., soared Friday
Nike
Nike shares erased an earlier loss to gain as much as 5.9%, while On Holding AG and Skechers USA Inc. also rose more than 6% each. Lululemon Athletica shares meanwhile jumped 3.9%. Wayfair Inc. was briefly halted for volatility after erasing a 19% decline to jump as much as 6.4%.
Trump said on social media that he spoke to To Lam and Vietnam wants to “cut their tariffs down to zero.” The president unveiled a levy of 46% on goods imported from Vietnam, effective April 9. Apparel and shoemakers had shifted manufacturing to the southeast Asia country in recent years after Trump hit China will levies during his first term.
About half of all Nike brand shoes and 39% of Adidas shoes are made in Vietnam, according to regulatory filings, with the country being the largest supplier of footwear for both companies. Nike has already said it expects its gross margin to decline sharply this quarter, in part due to US tariffs on products from China and Mexico.
Nike shares are still down more than 20% on the year, while Lululemon is off more than 30%.
Zara owner Inditex believes it will have opportunities to grow in the United States where it plans to open more stores, despite trade tariffs announced by President Donald Trump, Chief Executive Officer Oscar Garcia Maceiras said on Friday.
Zara
Garcia Maceiras said the company has not seen any drastic consumption changes in any of its key markets lately.
The United States is Inditex’s second-biggest market.