Biyani to up his stake in Pantaloon

MUMBAI: Kishore Biyani, the promoter of Future group, plans to increase his stake in Pantaloon Retail India Ltd (PRIL). The stake increase is expected to be around 13.5%, which will be done by infusing over Rs 1,000 crore through convertible equity warrants.
Biyani was not available for a comment.

Capital funding, according to analysts, would have been the biggest roadblock Pantaloon Retail would have faced in achieving its growth ambitions.

In all, the company is looking at raising over  Rs 1,200 crore through a combination of promoter investments, two undisclosed institutional investors and employees. Analysts envisage the dilution in equity to be around 17%.

The PRIL board has approved raising funds to the tune of Rs 200 crore by issuing 40 lakh equity shares at a premium of Rs 498 per share. Pantaloon Retail India Ltd (PRIL) has also finalised plans to invest Rs 325 crore into a subsidiary company, Pantaloon Future Ventures Ltd (FVL).

Damodar Mall, CEO-innovation and incubation, Future Group, said, “There are 6-10 projects at various stages of development.”

The PRIL board has also approved the initial public offering of Future Capital Holdings Ltd (FCH). The company officials said it would take them at least six months to hit the market.

Future Capital operates two businesses — asset management and consumer credit. The asset management business has four funds under management such as Kshitij ($850 million domestic real estate fund); Horizon ($350 million international real estate fund); IndiVision ($400 million non-leveraged private equity fund) and a new Hospitality fund ($350 million).

UBS Investment had recently valued the business of Future Capital to be around Rs 3,000 crore. Pantaloon Retail controls close to 74% stake in Future Capital (valued at Rs 2,200 crore), while the US-based hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital holds nearly 10% stake. The remaining stake is being held by co-promoter Sameer Sain and other senior employees such as Atul Kapur and Shishir Baijal.