Bharti to invest $7 billion in Wal-Mart deal
By Our Corporate Bureau | 27 Dec 2006
Mumbai: Sunil Mittal's Bharti Enterprises, which announced its franchising agreement with US retail giant Wal-Mart to start a chain of retail stores in India, has said that it would invest about $7 billion dollars in it by 2010.
The retail joint venture with Wal-Mart will set up 200 large super market stores and hundreds of smaller large-format stores to cater to an estimated 300 million strong increasingly affluent Indian middle class.
A decision on whether the retail venture should also enter the allied areas of transport and cold chain logistics or rely on third party providers has yet to be taken.
The group will acquire real estate for its retail foray by leasing space in metros and by buying it in Tier II and Tier III cities. The group's realty company, Bharti Realty, will identify properties for the venture, from which it expects to earn $1 billion to $2 billion in the same period.
Bharti is also tying up with Axa, its financial services and insurance service partner, to float a realty fund.