Pantaloon Retail India Ltd (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 Retail India Ltd’s Managing Director, Kishore Biyani, said after the company’s 22nd AGM in Mumbai.
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 reatil 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.