News: Bharti to invest $7 b in retail

(RTR 27/12/2006) Mumbai - Bharti Enterprises plans to invest about $7 billion by 2010 to set up 200 hypermarkets and hundreds of small stores across the country, the Business Standard paper said on Wednesday.

The diversified group, which last month announced a joint venture with the world's top retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expects to earn $1 billion to $2 billion in revenue from its retail business, which would constitute 10-20 per cent of the group's turnover by 2010, the paper said.

"We should have 200 large stores and hundreds of small stores in the first phase," Chairman Sunil Mittal told the paper.

"Depending on what we do in real estate and logistics, we will invest around $7 billion by 2010. Our expectation is a topline of $1-$2 billion from retail by the same period."

The group planned to enlist small retailers as franchisees and also decide whether the venture would undertake logistics or outsource functions such as trucking and cold chains.

At the time of announcing the venture, Mittal told Reuters it would operate several hundred stores across the country within five years and investment could run into billions of dollars.

The equal joint venture will operate in areas where the Indian government allows foreign investment in retail, like cash-and-carry and logistics, he said at the time.

India's retail industry is estimated at about $300 billion and is forecast to grow to $427 billion in 2010 and $637 billion in 2015, according to consultancy Technopak Advisors.