Leading corporate lawyers and accounting firms have swung into action to interpret the grey areas in the multi-brand retail FDI policy and suggest follow-up action to clients before they start striking deals.
According to experts, the company might be trying to ape Amazon, the largest e-commerce player in the world.
Walmart's JV with Bharti hinges on policy clarity
Many bureaucrats have in the recent past switched sides to join companies.
At least half a dozen such applications, including those from Celio, Gruppo Coin and Artsana, are in the works and are expected to be sent to the government in a few weeks.
The world's largest retail chain, the $446-billion Walmart, is likely to be the first international player to take off in India with its supermarket format. The Bentonville-based US giant is, in fact, ready with a network of 195 stores across India if it decides to extend its back-end and cash-and-carry partnership with Bharti Enterprises to front-end retail.
The company, now a part of the BBC Worldwide family, is eyeing the projected magic figure of 50 million outbound travellers (Indians travelling abroad) by 2020.
Group's hybrid direct selling format also confuses industry
Even as the Centre is working overtime to roll out FDI in retail while the real decision might rest with the states, Arvind Singhal, chairman, Technopak Advisors, often referred to as the poster boy of the Indian retail sector, said the so-called big-ticket measure was "not the most important thing"for the sector.
Brand name rule might be waived for Swedish major's mega investment proposal, indicates DIPP; final revision of its application likely by end-August.
The world's largest coffee chain, Seattle-based Starbucks, is close to hiring its India head. Tata Starbucks Limited, the $10.7-billion American group's joint venture with Tata Global Beverages, has zeroed in on Virag Joshi as managing director for India operations, according to market sources.
To reduce its mounting debt, DLF, the country's biggest real estate company, is set to sign a deal with Mumbai-based Lodha Developers for selling one of its showcase non-core assets the 17-acre National Textile Corporation (NTC) land in Mumbai.
The first IKEA store in India is unlikely to come up during the second term of the United Progressive Alliance government, which ends in May 2014, as the euro 25-billion Swedish furniture major takes "years" to set up shop in a new country after securing the necessary approvals.
Planet Retail is owned by non-resident Indian V P Sharma and Samsonite's Ramesh Tainwala.
While raising the foreign direct investment limit to 100 per cent in the single-brand retail segment six months earlier, the government asked retail chains with over 51 per cent foreign investment to source at least 30 per cent of the value of products sold in the country from Indian small/village/cottage industries, artisans and craftsmen.
Real estate companies' borrowing costs have moved up by a third in the last one and a half years, from 11.5-12 per cent to 16 per cent now.
Analysts and venture capitalists say Flipkart making considerable losses on book transactions.
General sentiment that slowdown and dip in investor sentiment won't affect rationale for expansion
The oil companies raised petrol prices by Rs 7.50 on Wednesday, a tough but unpopular decision which many see as a strong signal from the government that it's now stepping on the reform pedal.
Early this week, Sebi notified AIF regulations for private equity, hedge funds, venture capital funds and real estate funds, among others.
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