US based e-commerce tycoon Amazon is in talks with Kishore Biyani, the founder of India’s Future Retail Limited, to get a 10% stake at his enterprise. The company has more than 1000 outlets across India in more than 320 cities and this is the prime reason for Amazon to acquire its stakes.
Mr. Kishore went to US in early February to have a meeting with the head honcho. Seniors from Amazon came to India in the next month to discuss it further. Biyani, whose ancestral business is in clothing, is keen to sell no more than 10% stake of his firm. Kishore states that, “I will sell a minority stake to the strongest global retailer.”
Amazon is eager to expand its offline retailing options in India after Flipkart was taken by Walmart and Paytm by Alibaba. Amazon will invest $500-$600 million in Future Retail Limited whose valuation is around $6 billion. Amazon already has a 5% stake at Shoppers Stop. It has already invested $16 billion in India and it is looking forward to expand its services knowing the growth in coming years.
Future Retail Limited own retail stores like Big Bazaar, EasyDay, Foodhall, Nilgiri’s and now Foodworld, among others. Future Group which also owned Pantaloons sold it 50.1% stake to Aditya Birla Group in 2012.
Amazon’s counterparts were also in talks with Kishore Biyani to acquire stake at his firm but nothing fruitful came out of it. Amazon is likely to seal the deal by the end of next month.
