Azim Premji picks up 6% stake in Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Telecoms firm Bharti Airtel on Thursday sold a 6% stake in Future Retail to PremjiInvest, the family investment arm of Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, for about Rs 1,700 crore.

PremjiInvest is already an investor in one of the group entities, Future Lifestyle Fashions.

Future Retail will get Rs 575 crore from Bharti via a claw-back provision and the money will be used to reduce the company’s debt, said Kishore Biyani, the founder and chief executive officer of Future Group.

Bharti still holds about 3% stake in Future Retail via a group entity called Cedar Support Services.

According to Biyani, there is no sense of urgency from Bharti to sell the remaining stake.

“Cedar is a Mittal family owned entity which held around 9.3 percent in Future Retail. They have sold 6 percent of stake to PremjiInvest and PremjiInvest is one of the larger investor in consumer space in India. They are also investors with us in Future Lifestyle Fashion,” he said.

The deal comes at a time when Biyani is trying to shore up funds as the domestic e-commerce battle heats up.

The Indian retail landscape has changed drastically over the last years with the entry of global players such as Amazon and Walmart.

US retail behemoth Walmart has invested $16 billion in homegrown e-commerce startup Flipkart, valuing it at $21 billion.

And the speculation is rife that billionaire Jeff Bezos-led Amazon will also ramp up its India investment to $7 billion from earlier $5 billion.

Future Retail, the operator of Big Bazaar hyper and supermarket chain, is India’s retail pioneer. Biyani told the Economic Times last month that he was looking to sell at least 10% stake in the company to a global retailer.

Shares in Future Retail recovered most of their losses and were down 0.4% to Rs 565 at 11:55 IST on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The stock fell as much as 2.8% earlier in the session.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow