Spencer's plans IPO, Rs 1000 cr investment

Spencer's Retail, promoted by the Rs 11,300 crore RPG Group, is planning a public issue in the next 12 months to raise capital. It is planning to invest Rs 1,000 crore in the business in the next three years, for which the company is considering a mix of internal accruals and an IPO.

The company is planning to expand aggressively in the country and has booked 1 million sq feet space across the country. It will commission the same by the end of FY08, RPG chairman Harsh Goenka said. The company would create nearly 10,000 jobs in the next few years in different formats, he said. Spencer's currently has 6 million sq feet of retail space in the country and employs over 4,500 people.

Goenka said that the group's power utility firm, CESC would post revenues of Rs 2,500 crore in the financial year '08 and Spencer's would post revenues of Rs 1,000 crore in the same year. Earlier, the group had merged CESC with Pathik Retail, the holding company of Spencer's Retail, to draw synergies from the cash-rich power company.

Spencer's Retail President JH Mehta said the company was expanding its hypermarket chain Spencer Hyper outlets from 11 to 60 within three years.

The number of Spencer Superstores, the company's supermarket chain, would also go up from 6 to 20 within the next year.

The number of its smaller formats - Daily, Express and Fresh - would go up from the 180 now to nearly 600 by March 2008, he said.

The total number of all its stores including retail outlets such as Music World, Books and Beyond, RPG Cellcom and Health and Glow would grow from 400 to 2000 stores by 2009, he said.