Vaidyanathan's compensation is 'a performance-linked booty'.
'Anything you buy from any Future outlet should have financing options by us'
Yesterday, we carried the tale of a reader's unpleasant shopping experience and invited you to write in with yours. Here is the first set of responses we've received!
Clearing the air on the issue of succession and the role of professionals in the group, the younger Biyani (Rakesh) said, "I find it very awkward to think so early about succession when my elder brother, Kishore, is still young, not even 50. I wonder why nobody asks who is going to succeed Mukesh Ambani, who owns the biggest business empire in the country."
The disclosure comes within days after Kishore Biyani-owned Pantaloon Retail said that same store sales in December dropped for the first time in four years. Analysts were more surprised at the drop in value retailing, which indicated that value retailers were not benefiting from downtrading.
Kishore Biyani, who owns the Future Group and its associated retail chains, is seeking support from rival retailers to challenge the might of Hindustan Unilever, Cadbury, Britannia and other confectionary, food and fast moving consumer goods companies (FMCG) to bargain for higher margins.
Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group company Pantaloon Retail is hiving off four of its business divisions, including Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, into independent subsidiaries, keeping the option open for listing them in future. The Board of Pantaloon Retail on Tuesday approved setting up of wholly-owned subsidiary companies for Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Speciality Retail Business Activities and Property and Mall Management Division.
Kishore Biyani, founder and CEO of the Future Group, has emerged as the largest and perhaps the most successful retailer in India. Here he looks back at successes, failures and other defining moments in his entrepreneurial life.
The company obtained its shareholders' approval for its plans in the extraordinary general meeting held on Tuesday. This is the second time the Kishore Biyani-led Pantaloon is using the QIP route to raise money. The first time was three years ago, when the company raised Rs 260 crore (Rs 2.6 billion) by selling shares to institutions in 2006.
Consider this: Kishore Biyani's Future Group, which owns the country's largest retailer Pantaloon, is converting the standalone stores of book and music chain Depot into shop-in-shops within Big Bazaar. While the number of Depot shop-in-shops has risen to 123, that of standalone stores has come down to nine. Same with UK-based footwear brand Lee Cooper.
Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Thursday told the Delhi high court that Amazon was opposing the Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance as the Mukesh Ambani company was a competitor, a contention denied by the US-based e-commerce giant which said it was interested in salvaging FRL. FRL contended before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh that Amazon was not concerned if the deal falls through then all the shops of the Indian company would be closed down and it's more than 25,000 employees would be without any livelihood. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for FRL, told the court that the US-based e-commerce giant was only concerned that the Mukesh Ambani group company should not get the shops as they are a competitor of Amazon.
Retail chain set to spin off Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, create holding firm.
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies is organising its annual business convention Strategym 2006.
Indian retailers put cash & carry on backburner
Today, the chairman of Vishal Retail is eagerly waiting his date with the Corporate Debt Restructuring cell of lenders in the third week of November.
The head of Pantaloon, India 's leading retailer, has warned that high property prices in big Indian cities are threatening the country's burgeoning retail industry and adding to the pressures brought on by soaring construction and labour costs
VMIL officials declined to comment on the development. According to sources close to the development, VMIL will sell stake to raise money for expanding Hungama, the content and mobile services arm. The Mumbai-based company has already held two to three rounds of meetings with these private equity investors. The company's valuation has been pegged at Rs 800 crore (Rs 8 billion). The funds raised would be used for Hungama's expansion.
According to sources in the Future Group, it plans to tie up with international retailers in different segments. "We can certainly look at bringing in foreign capital to our subsidiaries now," said a group official, who did not wish to be quoted. Under the new guidelines, downstream investments by an Indian company that has foreign investment but is owned and controlled by Indians will not be considered as FDI.
The JV will be set up in about 8-10 cities, including Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Indore, Jaipur, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai. The investment is expected to provide significant synergies to the Future Group, which has a large advertisement budget and aligns well with the group's businesses such as Future Media, which has interests in media and advertising.
Future Group Founder & CEO Kishore Biyani wants to take his pet theme of 'collaboration' to the next level for a greater share of the consumer's wallet.
Starbucks Coffee International, the world's biggest coffee chain is finally entering India.
Debt-ridden Future Group is now focusing on saving and rebuilding firms such as -- Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Supply Chain Solutions, Future Consumer and Future Enterprises, after the Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail was rejected by secured creditors, according to industry sources. However, Future Group's flagship firm Future Retail Ltd (FRL), which has nearly Rs 18,000 crore debt, is bound to face the corporate insolvency resolution process before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Other companies like Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL), Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd (FLFL), Future Supply Chain Solutions Ltd (FSCSL), Future Consumer Ltd (FCL) can sustain on their own and can be rebuilt by restructuring their liabilities with the help of current lenders and investors, said an industry source close to the Future Group.
Future Capital Holdings has decided to venture into the hedge fund business in the next three months.
Amazon provided mere "lip service" and failed to provide any help to the debt-laden Future Group as the retail major suffered massive setback amid the COVID-induced lockdown and faced possible insolvency or debt restructuring, Future Group's promoters said in a letter to the e-commerce giant. This is the first time Future Group promoters have written to Amazon after the parties were embroiled in a legal battle over the sale of Future's retail assets to Reliance Industries. The letter from the promoters, including Kishore Biyani, was written on December 31. It alleged that Amazon's actions "lacked good faith" during the March to August period, when the group's retail business was severely hit by the lockdown.
The venture, on the lines of Kishore Biyani's Future Ventures India, will focus its investments in the information technology sector, said a source familiar with the development.
Consumer durables major Videocon and Kishore Biyani's Future group have entered into an agreement to source consumer durables.
At the moment Concor, a public sector company controlled by the railways, has a monopoly in running container trains across the country. It offers ferrying rates to carry containers that are one-third of that on roads.
Though Kishore Biyani is selling stakes in group companies to pay off debt, a significant share price crash since January this year is making his task difficult.
'The idea of modern retail is to drive consumption and grow the economy. If international retailers can do that and add new categories, why not?' asks Kishore Bayani of the Future Group.
The retail king is back to what he does best: Expand. Future Group chairman Kishore Biyani is planning to add two Big Bazaar stores every month and open 15 hypermarkets over the next six months.
L&T is planning a foray in PE fund in the real estate market with a Rs 4500 crore fund.
The varied roles he has played have included those as a trader, a failed film-maker, a dance festival organiser
The Delhi high court on Thursday upheld the Singapore Emergency Arbitrator's (EA) order restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from going ahead with its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail to sell its business, which was objected to by US-based e-commence giant Amazon.
Future Capital Holding disclosed its plans to enter asset management and retail broking. A credit card tie up with ICICI bank is also in the pipeline.
India's retail giants, including Kishore Biyani's Future Group, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail and Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti group, have started negotiations with the railways for leasing land for retail development.
Future Group Chairman Kishore Biyani says he takes immense pride in the fact that he is a miser. As a slowdown towers over the economic landscape, Biyani says the biggest worry for retailers these days is the increasing cost of doing business, and passing on the costs to your customers is no longer a feasible solution. Biyani's company has distributed thousands of T-shirts among his employees with the inscription: Garv se kaho ham kanjoos hai (Say with pride that you are a mi
ETAM, the French lingerie brand that has a joint venture with Kishore Biyani's Future Group, recently pulled out of Palm Beach Galleria mall in Navi Mumbai, together with six other retailers such as grocery chain Foodland Fresh and Manoranjan sarees.
Big retailers say the events work, but others aren't sure.
Though the exact amount of stake dilution is not known, Pantaloon Retail's Managing Director Kishore Biyani said the company would divest more than 20 per cent shares. Future Ventures will house the company's JVs and new ventures.
The tables have turned. Organised retail, which used to cite real estate as its first constraint, is being wooed by developers as there is a sudden surplus created by completion of pending projects and new construction. According to an industry analyst, the rental for a retailer used to constitute 4-5 per cent of its total revenue in the years 2001 and 2002, rising to 7-7.5 per cent in the later years. Industry analysts believe a retailer's profit would get eroded
