IndiaRetailBiz

Pantaloon Retail, the flagship retailing arm of Kishore Biyani proted Future Group, as reported earlier, has formally decided to hive off its highly successful Big Bazaar (hypermarket) and Food Bazaar (supermarket) retail chain formats into independent subsidiary companies.

Pantaloon, according to agency reports, is also creating independent subsidiary companies for speciality retail business activities as well as property and mall Management activities.

The Board of Pantaloon took these decisions considering the independent growth each activity had achieved. This will also help the group to unlock the value of retail chains by listing them at a suitable time in future. Kishore Biyani had, in fact, given a hint of this while speaking to media persons in Delhi recently. He was meeting the media persons to promote the Initial Public Issue of Future Capital Holdings Limited- another company of the group offering financial advisory and consumer credit services.

Pantaloon Retail has decided to transfer respective businesses to the respective subsidiary companies on a ‘going concern’ basis.

Pantaloon’s speciality retail business is engaged with managing various joint ventures including with Lee Cooper, Etam — the French innerwear major, and Staples — the UK-based leading stationery supplier.

The Property and Mall Management Division of the Future Group is entrusted with the responsibility of managing malls in Mumbai (2) and Siliguri (1).