MUMBAI: Tesco Pic has applied to invest in India’s Trent Hypermarket Ltd, the British retailer said yesterday, making it the first foreign investor in India’s multi- brand retail sector.
The world’s third-largest retailer made an application to India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board and plans to invest $110 million, according to an official at the Indian Trade Ministry.
A statement from Trent said Tesco
wanted approval to buy a 50% stake in the company, which operates its Star Bazaar hypermarket chain in Maharashtra and neighbouring Karnataka.
The decision brings much-needed relief to the government, which allowed foreign investors in India’s supermarket sector in September 2012 but had failed to see a single application until now.
Trent is a unit of India’s Tata Group.
REUTERS