Future Group not to list ‘Big Bazaar’ yet

Kishore Biyani promoted Future Group is looking to manage its hypermarket format ‘Big Bazaar’ as a separate entity.

"We are looking at various possibilities to hive off Big Bazaar and the decision would be taken very soon," said Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future group.

Talking about the group's revenue target, Mr. Biyani said that Big Bazaar has annualized revenue of about Rs 4,000 crore (USD 1 billion) which  will should be between Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 7,000 crore in the next year.

Presently, around 80 Big Bazaars are operating countrywide and by the end of this year, company anticipates 100 percent growth by taking it to 160. At the moment, there are 5 hometowns and 35 E-Zones, which are expected to touch 10 and 70 respectively by 2008 end.

However Biyani said that the group was not looking at listing Big Bazaar in the immediate future. Big Bazaar is a hypermarket format of the Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd. Market experts feel that the move would help the group to raise money for Big Bazaar, besides enabling it to continue expanding the network.

The Future Group is also looking at fresh acquisitions to grow its retail business. The group is in advanced talks to pick up strategic stakes in companies in the fashion and food retail space.

“We are negotiating to pick up stakes in several retail firms that are mainly in the apparel and food segment. Some of these deals are in fairly advanced stages of negotiation,” Kishore Biyani said.

Meanwhile, IPO of group's financial services arm Future Capital Holdings, proposing to raise around Rs 490 crore, has already been fully subscribed within the first four hours of opening.

Recently, Big Bazaar in association with Star India, launched a designer collection of ethnic wear under the brand name “Star Parivaar.”

Business News: