In what could be biggest shake up in India’s retail sector, and cheer up the real estate developers also who are at the receiving end by the retail partners, the global major retail Walmart is in talks with Big Bazaar for stake. The USD 408 billion retailing major Walmart is exploring a deal to pick up a stake in Big Bazaar’s back-end ops and later expand the deal to front-end business when the regulations allow.
Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar have combined revenues of Rs.6,000 crore and the Future Group has a total debt of Rs.4,800 crore. Senior officials of the Future group and Walmart have met at least five times in the past four months. Future Group owner Kishore Biyani visited Walmart’s headquarters in Bentonville, US, last December where he met Doug McMillon, president and CEO of the American company.