Bharti Wal-mart deal likely this month
By Our Corporate Bureau | 11 Apr 2007
Bharti Enterprises today said that it would sign a deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc for a joint venture in cash-and-carry and back-end supply for its retail operations this month, a month later than expected.
After a meeting between Wal-Mart's top US executives and ministers and senior government officials last month, Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal had said that the two firms were very close to finalising a deal.
Mittal's Bharti Retail Ltd, a wholly owned venture under the Bharti Enterprises banner, has said that it would spend $2.5 billion by 2015 on setting up large-format hypermarkets, supermarkets and other stores across India.
Wal-Mart's proposed entry in to the $300 billion Indian retail sector has triggered political concerns and protests from Leftist trade unions and small shop owners and has elicited concern from the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who is also the president of the Congress party.