Biggest Indian retail merger |
India`s retail market witnessed the biggest merger so far. Kishore Biyani-led Future Group will merge its retail business with rival Bharti Retail in an all-stock deal worth Rs 750 crore to create one of the biggest supermarket chains with Rs 15,000 crore turnover. This is the second major consolidation exercise within two days in India. Aditya Birla Group a day earlier nnounced merging all its apparel retail businesses into a single entity. The two-tier deal between Future and Bharti groups also involves merger of their respective retail infrastructure business into Future Retail -- creating two separate companies for the front-end retail and infrastructure activities. Meanwhile, Future Group founder Kishore Biyani has mandated Kotak Mahindra Bank to find a financial backer for Lee Cooper`s apparel business that could be valued at $200 million, or more than Rs 1,200 crores. The group is looking for a financial investor to hold a large minority interest in the business. The asking valuation of Lee Cooper`s Indian business is over 16 times its operating profit of nearly Rs 70 crore last fiscal.
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