Bharti Enterprises, Wal-Mart ink retail tie-up

New Delhi, Nov 27: Bharti Enterprises today announced a tie-up with world's largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc, US, to jointly explore business opportunities in the growing Indian retail space.

With the current government regulations permitting FDI in cash-and-carry and logistics but not in the front-end retail, the two companies have signed an MoU for the former business.

''This partnership with equal stakes will operate in areas where the government allows foreign investment in retail like cash-and-carry and logistics,'' Bharti Enterprise Chairman Sunil Mittal said.

The retail shops will be owned by Bharti Enterprises under the Wal-Mart franchise, Bharti said in a statement here.

However, it gave no details on investment and roll out plans.

With the Indian retail story growing at a fast pace, the Bharti-Wal-Mart alliance is a historic deal in Indian retail, television channels quoted local retail players as saying.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc operates Wal-Mart discount stores, supercenters, neighbourhood markets and Sam's Club locations in the United States.

Organised retailing counts for 3 per cent of the total retail market, compared to China's 20 per cent and Thailand's 40 per cent, at of now.

But with the entry of large Indian firms including Bharti, Reliance Industries, the Tata group and the Aditya Birla Group the share is set to rise to 15-18 per cent by 2011-12.

Reliance Industries recently opened its first grocery stores in Hyderabad and announced an investment 5.6 billion dollars in formats ranging from convenience stores to hypermarkets.

UNI