Pawar endorses Bharti's proposed pact with Wal-Mart

Bharti Enterprises' retail plans, which could involve a tie up with Wal-Mart, will be useful for India's farmers, union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said today, after his meeting with the US retail major's vice chairman Mike Duke.

Pawar said that Bharti's efforts would help Indian farmers get remunerative prices.

Sunil Mittal, CEO, Bharti Group, had today said that Wal-Mart and Bharti Enterprises were very close to finalising a deal for a retail joint venture, though the US giant had described the talks between the two as "preliminary".

The two companies are discussing setting up a wholesale cash-and-carry business, developing supply chain and logistics as the Indian government does not permit multi-brand retailers in the country.

After a round of discussions in the morning, Mittal accompanied Duke and Rajan Bharti Mittal, joint managing director, Bharti Enterprises for a meeting with Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman, Planning Commission

Wal-Mart had said that it was looking forward to partnering with Bharti to build a cash and carry back-end linkages with farmers and suppliers through "a robust and efficient supply chain" and was conducting business studies concerning the feasibility of investing in establishing backward linkages with suppliers and farmers.

Earlier this Monday Bharti Enterprises had announced an investment of 2.5 billion and projected revenues of $4.5 billion from the new business by 2015.

The investment would be for setting up front-end stores, while a separate plan and investments for real estate would be announced later. Bharti has scheduled the launch of its first store in the first quarter of 2008.

According to its current plans, the company is looking at 10 million square feet of retail space, which would include hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores.

While Bharti would manage front-end of the retail venture, Wal-Mart would be involved in the back-end, including logistics, supply chain and cash-and-carry.