Starbucks to enter India through FDI route

27 Jun 2007

New Delhi: Global coffee giant Starbucks plans to file a revised application to the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) for an entry into the Indian market.

The department feels that Starbucks should enter through the FDI route and the coffee chain had earlier applied for entry through the franchisee route.

Under the previous proposal, the master franchisee was New Horizons Retail, floated by Indonesia-based NRI VP Sharma and Kishore Biyani, the CEO of the Future Group.

Looking into the share-holding pattern of New Horizons Retail in which Sharma holds 51 per cent and Biyani the remaining 49 per cent DIPP feels that the company does not conform to the FDI norms, given that the majority stake is held by an NRI.

The DIPP''s annual review of the FDI policy is likely to be over by July-end.

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