RETAILING

Japanese Partner Sues Barney’s Owners: With its suit, the U.S. subsidiary of the giant Japanese group Isetan Co. seeks to recover $168 million in short-term loans from Robert and Gene Pressman. Isetan of America said it extended the loans to the Barney’s Preen affiliate in 1993 and ’94 to cover cost overruns and capital needs related to the construction of the Barneys New York stores on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills and on Madison Avenue in New York. Preen defaulted on the loans in 1995, Isetan said. Its suit, filed in New York Supreme Court, came one day after Barney’s filed for bankruptcy protection and announced that it would sue to end its partnership with Isetan.