LAWS International Holdings is having ''preliminary contacts'' with the stock exchange about spinning off its Bossini retail business as a listed company, says director Joseph Tong Yee-yung.
The spin-off might not involve a new share issue, said Mr Tong, who said the group had submitted some documents to the exchange.
He said the Bossini chain had accounted for about 20 per cent of group turnover for the year to March 31. That would translate into a turnover of about $520 million.
In the previous year, when it included its then 80 per cent-owned Judy's garment retailing operation in the United States, the group's retail business accounted for 30 per cent of group turnover, or about $900 million.
The company was yesterday unable to supply profit figures for Bossini, although the overall retail business registered a loss in the year to March 31, 1992.
In that year, the collapsed Judy's booked a $235 million extraordinary loss.