Anxious wait

Mumbai, March 14: India Inc today got a feel of Mukesh Ambani’s sky-high ambitions in retail from the buzz surrounding Reliance Industries’ possible move for a stake in Carrefour.

There were also reports of Ambani eyeing two subsidiaries of the French retailer.

The speculation was sparked off amid reports of the Halley family, a major stakeholder in Carrefour, mandating two banks to negotiate sale of its 13 per cent stake in the company.

The French website boursier.com said the Halleys were considering sale of their entire stake in the company for 55-60 euros a share, which will fetch them more than 5 billion euros.

Though a spokesperson for Reliance declined to comment on the issue, rumours of Ambani preparing a warchest to carry out a major overseas acquisition in retail have been swirling over the past few weeks.

Sources, however, said a Carrefour deal will give Reliance the opportunity to tap the French company’s chain of retail stores around the world.

Reliance is reportedly interested in some other parts of Carrefour, including the supply chain management and international commodity divisions.

Carrefour, however, denied that it was in negotiations with Reliance on either a stake deal or the formation of a joint venture, reports AFP.

There have also been unconfirmed reports in the recent past about the senior Ambani scion scouting for takeovers around the world in other sectors as well.

The size of Ambani’s warchest has been estimated at $20 billion and companies on his hit list included GE Plastics and even Dow Chemicals.

Ambani last year pledged an investment of Rs 25,000 crore in the organised retail business. The initiative was kicked off in November with the launch of food format stores called Reliance Fresh.

The Reliance group is now set to unveil other formats such as hypermarkets, supermarkets and speciality stores in the first quarter of 2007-08.

Besides Carrefour, Reliance is also talking to tier-II companies like Salisbury and Marks and Spencer for food business.