Pantaloon's retail to complete re-structuring by February

Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd (PRIL), in the hope of becoming a pure retail player is re-structuring its business by hiving off retail divisions, Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar into a wholly owned subsidiary. This process is set to be completed by January-February 2010. Its main aim is to efficiently use capital for greater flexibility in expanding retail operations, and maintain a pure retail identity as against the one earlier which was partly non-retail. The retailer is also looking to unlock value in the financial services business that includes Future Capital, this year. 

The overall restructuring is slated to take up to six months. Pantaloon Retail is looking at investing Rs 360 crore this fiscal for its retail space expansion. Currently, Pantaloon operates over 12 million sq. ft of retail space across the country under formats, such as Pantaloons, Central, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Home Town, Ethnicity and others.