Provogue inks JV with Liberty for retail infra devp

Mumbai, Oct 16: Provogue India Ltd has entered into a joint venture agreement with Liberty International PLC of the UK, in order to develop and manage prime regional shopping centers for the growing organised retail sector in India.

Briefing newspersons here today, Mr Nikhil Chaturvedi, Managing Director, Provogue India said that under the agreement, Liberty International PLC will take 25 per cent of the equity shares of Prozone Enterprises Pvt Ltd, the Company's wholly owned retail infrastructure subsidiary, subject to FIPB approval.

Based on current projections, Liberty International's equity contribution in respect of these six centres will be of the order of Rs 202.5 crore (roughly 25 million sterling pounds). With property investments of over 7.5 billion sterling pounds, of which regional shopping centers amount to some 85 per cent, Liberty is one of the world's largest such groups and own 9 of the top 25 shopping centres in the UK.

Currently, Provogue is operating from 90 stores and expected to grow to 130 stores by end of March 2007.

On macro level, the present organised retail in India still only represents 3 per cent of the US$ 220 billion total annual retail spend in the country. Current forecasts predict that organised retail will grow to some 10 per cent of the total retail industry within five years.

UNI