Future Group eyes PE investment for growth

After relisting his company as a fast moving consumer goods

(FMCG) company on the stock exchange, retail baron Kishore Biyani's Future Group is focussing on getting the business model right. The group is also said to be in the process of offloading its stake in AND and Biba to PE investors General Atlantic and CX Partners respectively.

The group is now busy looking for PE investments in it holding companies including grocery chain KB Fair Price, Home Town and sports retail company Planet Sports, where it plans to sell 49 percent stak. While talks are in the final stages, a formal announcement would be made soon. After these deals get through, the group will fully concentrate on expanding and growing Big Bazaar chain, Central fashion mall chain and Brand Factory outlets.

As a part of its retail strategy, the company plans to launch seven to eight Central in the next six months in Kochi, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Bangalore along with 10 to 12 Brand Factory outlets. In the last one and half months, the company opened Big Bazaar outlets in Patna, Chandigarh, Agartala, Thane and Kolkata and also plans to open three more Food Hall outlets in the next one month. The focus would now be on increasing fashion business share at the Big Bazaar. Sources also confirm that apart from stake acquisition in Express Retail (Big Apple), footwear brand Tresmode and designer brand Mineral, the group is also in the final stages of acquiring a fashion retailer.