Kishore Biyani-led Future Group has agreed to merge its retail business with Bharti Retail in an all-stock deal worth Rs 750 crore to create one of the biggest supermarket chains with Rs 15,000 crore turnover. The two-tier deal between the two retrial giants also involves merger of their respective retail infrastructure business into Future Retail — creating two separate companies for the front-end retail and infrastructure activities. Future Group promoters would hold 46-47 percent stake in each of the two companies, while Bharti Retail will have about 15 percent holding in each of them. Bharti will have one member on each of the two new companies. The new retail entity will have one of the largest networks in India with 570 stores across 243 cities. Signage players, whose activities involve in in-shop branding and displays, can get some fresh business opportunity out of this merger of two retail giants.
