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.
