World’s second largest retailer, France based Carrefour, is again planning for an Indian entry into the growing organized retail market. Earlier in June, it had decided to pull out of the Indian market after talks failed with various local partners.
But this time Carrefour is taking a more measured approach and looking at a partner who has access to prime real estate and has considerable political clout rather than having an expertise in retail, and DLF has emerged as the front runner for partnership.
Reports also say that it is also in touch with Reliance ADAG, Essar Group and Kishore Biyani’s Future Group. For Anil Ambani and Essar, it may mean exploiting the retail potential by partnering Carrefour and for Future Group, it may provide a foreign partner for Big Bazaar which could be useful owing to increasing competition.
Earlier, Carrefour had talks with HDFC, Tatas, Bharti, Landmark and Bombay Dyeing for the retail foray. But the talks failed since Carrefour wanted a conservative and slow rollout much to the dislike of Indian players.
If Carrefour indeed partner DLF, then it will be a step forward for DLF as it can get a sizeable retail presence with a global partner at prime locations. It will also integrate well with the large malls that DLF plans to build as Carrefour could become the anchor tenant.
But among all this, the opposition to Indian and foreign retailers would be a big question mark before the actual deal materialises. via