Carrefour may firm up India plans soon

The world's second-largest retailer, the 76-billion euros (6,46,930 crores) Carrefour, is planning to firm up its

India entry plans in the multi-brand retail segment. Chairman and CEO, Georges Plassat is expected to be in the country soon. Sources speculate that his visit may culminate into a business deal.

The buzz is that the retail major is in talks with Indian retailers like K Raheja-owned HyperCity, a subsidiary of Shoppers Stop, and Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group. However, Biyani has denied negotiating with Carrefour. Three years ago, Carrefour was almost in final stages of its negotiations with the Future Group, when it was scouting a local partner to open multi-brand retail stores in the country. However, lack of clarity over investment norms under the FDI policy had forced the global major to put its plans on hold.

Carrefour operates five cash-and-carry stores in India. The last outlet opened in Bangalore in December, while the others are in Delhi, Agra, Meerut and Jaipur. Globally, the group operates 10,000 stores across four formats in 34 countries. In China, it opened the 238th hypermarket last month. It recently picked up a portfolio of 127 shopping malls in France, Spain and Italy from real estate group Klepierre. The company is focused on Europe and key Asian markets such as China. As of December 2012, Carrefour had annual revenue of Rs 190 crores from its cash-and-carry business in India.

Though the Indian government had allowed 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail sector last September, it had not received a single proposal owing to certain rules of the FDI policy like mandatory sourcing from Indian SMEs and investment in back-end infrastructure. Many global retailers have put their plans on hold. But after ministry’s meetings with both domestic and international retailers, the government in August 2013 eased the norms to make the segment lucrative for retailers.