Pantaloon to set up 51 malls in 3 years

Company's VC fund, Kshitij, will fund the project.

The Pantaloon group-promoted Kshitij will be setting up 51 malls over 14.5 million sq ft over the next three years.

Shishir Baijal, chief operating officer, Kshitij, said, "These malls will be called Kshitij Retail Destinations and will be spread over 29 cities ranging from Mumbai and Chennai to smaller ones like Siliguri, Guwahati and Ranchi. This is the first time a chain of malls will have a pan-India presence."

The 51 malls would include the ones being developed using Kshitij Venture Capital Fund, as well as malls both owned and leased by Pantaloon Retail. Baijal said the total cost of the projects being implemented by KVC fund is approximately Rs 2,500 crore, and KVC's equity contribution is around Rs 600 crore.

In addition, he said the Horizon International Fund, which is a $250 million fund, would have its first closing by the end of January 2006.

He is confident of doubling the 14.5 million sq ft of retail space to 30 million sq ft by July next year.

"While in terms of properties the number would be limited, we would be looking at larger properties where we would set up about four-five town centres like the one planned at the Mukand property in Mumbai," Baijal said.

The size of these would be about 5 million sq ft each and would be mixed with retail spaces which would also have hotels and convention centres. The company will announce the marketing of the properties at the India Fashion Forum in Mumbai on January 24.

Baijal said these 51 properties had been identified over the last six months and work was already underway in about half of these.

The first property, a mall in Ahmedabad, would be opening later this year. Kshitij would also be setting up a mall management company in collaboration with a foreign firm to define these destinations and provide services such as tenant management, marketing, and events.

In terms of tenant mix, Pantaloon Retail is likely to occupy about 20 per cent of the overall space available. The company has tied up with Inox Leisure to set up multiplexes at the Kshitij properties, and about 37 of the 51 malls coming up would have a multiplex.