Bharti to announce retail foray in 90 days

Amid negotiations with three top retail business companies "� Tesco,

Wal-Mart and Carrefour "� Bharti group today said it would roll out its retail plans in 90 days and take a decision whether to own real estate or go for leased land model.

"If you develop your own real estate then estimates are that you will have to invest about a billion dollar (Rs 4,500-500 crore), while for leased land model there may not be much of investments," said Sunil Mittal, CMD, Bharti group.

"We are not gungho on the real estate model. Real estate is very hot at the moment and we believe that it has to see some correction," he said.

"We are actively working to find out right model. In next three months we will roll out plans including decision on our partners, technical partners and go with that," he said.

One of the major concerns in the retail business is that only wholesale trading is allowed in foreign direct investment (FDI) and the company would have to get comfort of foreign partners for wholesale trading, he said.

"With a possible hope that some time there will be participation in the front end and till that time Bharti will have to make its own investment and on its own risk and cost," Mittal said.

There are different models such as Wal-Mart or Reliance, which are being talked about. These include hyper marketarge warehouses/outside the cities or small shops like 7/11 or tesco express in various colonies.