Lulu Group to invest Rs 10,000 cr in India to complete ongoing projects

"We have investments of more than Rs 20,000 crore in different areas including shopping malls, hotels, and food processing units (in India). We will increase this," Yusuff Ali said

UAE-based Lulu Group will be investing Rs 10,000 crore in India on various ongoing projects over the next three years and the UAE-based conglomerate has already invested over Rs 20,000 crore in the country, Lulu Chairman Yusuff Ali MA said here on Monday.

He also said his aim is to provide employment to 50,000 people in India and added that so far his various enterprises have employed over 22,000 people.

Yusuff Ali, in the presence of Telangana Minister for Industries K T Rama Rao, also said that Lulu Group has committed about Rs 3,500 crore in investments in Telangana in the next five years on various projects including Destination shopping malls (Rs 3,000 crore) here and also in other cities in the state.

Destination shops, stores or malls are ones that shoppers purposely plan to visit because they offer either special pricing, unusual items or friendly atmosphere, such as Ikea or Decathlon for example.

"We have investments of more than Rs 20,000 crore in different areas including shopping malls, hotels, and food processing units (in India). We will increase this," he said.

"We have started the construction of a shopping mall in Ahmedabad. And also another one in Chennai is coming up. A food processing plant is coming up in Noida and another one in Telangana. It is Rs 10,000 crore investments in the next three years," Yusuff Ali said when asked about the overall investments in upcoming projects.

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has liberalised NRI investment laws, he said according to that all investments by non-resident Indians are treated as domestic investments.

He said a five lakh sq ft Lulu Mall, built with an investment of Rs 300 crore here, will be inaugurated in August and an export-oriented modern integrated meat-processing plant and state-of-the-art destination mall of 2.2 million sq ft will also come up.

Lulu group also has plans to set up an agriculture sourcing and logistics hub near Hyderabad Airport for facilitating exports and promotion of local Telangana produce across India and the world, he said.

With more than 250 hypermarkets and 24 shopping malls across 22 nations, Lulu Group has been expanding rapidly in India as well, with investments in food processing and retail projects in Ahmedabad, Chennai, Srinagar, Greater Noida and Varanasi.

Minister Rama Rao requested Yusuff Ali to set up fish processing and meat processing plants as well, and to also procure rice from Telangana to supply in his hypermarkets, to which the Lulu chairman agreed.