Shoppers Stop may sell Hypercity stake

Shoppers Stop may sell 10 to 15 per cent stake in Hypercity by March 2017. It has a 51 per cent stake in Hypercity, the hypermarket format, while K Raheja Corp holds the remaining 49 per cent. Hypercity stores range from 20,000 square feet to as high as 50,000 square feet though the business has yet to turn profitable. Around Rs 150 crores to Rs 200 crores will be raised for Hypercity before March 2017.

While Shoppers Stop has a debt of Rs 615 crores, Hypercity had a debt of Rs 234 crores as of September 30, 2016. A year ago Shoppers Stop had consolidated debt of Rs 856 crores, which has reduced marginally.

Hypercity losses in the second quarter of financial year ’17 dropped to Rs 17.26 crores from Rs 19.29 crores in the second quarter of financial year 2016. Sales were up by 15.4 per cent from a year ago. The company’s EBITDA loss reduced to Rs 57 lakhs from Rs 470 lakhs in the second quarter of FY ’16.

The company witnessed like-to-like sales growth of 3.4 per cent. Gross margin was 22.8 per cent in the second quarter of FY ’17 compared to 22.2 per cent in the second quarter of FY ’16.