Pantaloon to invest Rs 360 cr in retail space

Pantaloon Retail India (PRIL), the country's largest listed supermarket operator, plans to spend Rs 360 crore in the remainder of this fiscal, to add up to 2.4-million sq ft of retail space to existing operations.

"We have a capex plan of Rs 360 crore to add up 2.4- million sq ft of retail space...That is in the Pantaloon Retail balance-sheet and not the subsidiaries. That's the plan for the balance 7-8 months (of this financial year)," Pantaloon's Managing Director, Kishore Biyani, told reporters after the company's 22nd AGM here.

The company, a part of the diversified Future Group, begins its financial year in July. While the Future Group operates 15-million sq ft of retail space across India, Pantaloon Retail with its multiple lifestyle and value chains runs around 13-million sq ft.

Pantaloon Retail is also looking to hive-off its value retail chain--Big Bazaar--into a separate subsidiary, which may eventually go for an initial public offer (IPO).

"We are looking at subsidarisation of Big Bazaar into a separate company... If we need capital, probably we can raise capital (through a public issue)," Biyani said.

Biyani said the company will open 155 Big Bazaar stores by 2014, increasing its total network to 275 stores. PRIL also plans to deploy a part of the Rs 500-crore, raised through a QIP issue last week, into expansion and for debt reduction.