Xander buys additional stake in Trent

Global investment firm Xander has acquired an additional three per cent stake in Tata group’s public listed retail company

Trent for Rs 107.4 crores (18 million dollars) from its own co-founder Siddharth Yog, who has sold his entire individual holding in the company. Xander held 2.2 per cent in Trent as of December 31, 2013 through Dodona Holdings, a fund managed by it. With the latest deal it would own over 5 per cent in Trent. Xander has exposure of 1-2 per cent in various public listed companies but this is the first time when it owns as much as 5 per cent stake in a listed entity. The latest stake acquisition comes at a time when Trent has inked a partnership with world’s third-largest retailer Tesco.

Besides running department chain Westside, Trent is the operator of Star Bazaar through Trent Hypercity. Tesco Plc has signed an agreement to pick 50 per cent equity stake in Trent Hypermarket for around Rs 850 crores (140 million dollars) including purchase of shares worth Rs 150 crore from Trent.

Xander is the sponsor of Virtuous Retail, the retail real estate business arm which is developing assets in Surat, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata and Mumbai. The Xander Group, an investment firm co-founded by Yog, currently manages assets worth 2.1 billion dollars (over Rs 12,600 crores).