| Future Group Chief Executive Officer Kishore Biyani and ex-Goldman Sach Managing Director Sameer Sain, who is the CEO of Future Capital Holdings (FCH), are the major investors in the company. |
| The offshore fund will invest in large warehouses in major cities across the country and the centres will cater to dry and cold warehousing needs of retail and FMCG businesses. |
| Future Group's research arm Future Insights, led by Roopa Purushothaman, co-author of the famous BRICs report, is conducting a study on sectoral analysis, its potential and investments and the report will be used to devise investment strategies, said Sain. |
| "The centres will not be restricted to the Group's captive use, but will be available for everybody. The idea is to become the country's largest independent owner and provider of logistics facilities and one-stop solution to clients," Sain added. |
| Future Group is also in talks with a North American company to form a joint venture in setting up logistic centres. |
| "We will partner with globally reputed companies for technology and know-how and use our local execution skills and expertise to set up the centres," Sain said. |
| Sain hopes to draw synergies from the company's expertise in real estate and the Group's retail business in launching the new fund. |
| For starters, FCH has two real estate funds "" Kshitij Fund and Horizon international Fund "" which have a combined corpus of $430 million. |
| It also has a $425 million Indivision Fund, which has been invested in firms such as construction major PE Billimoria. FCH also has a $200 million hospitality fund. |
| According to a report by Datamonitor, India Logistics Outlook 2007, logistics cost of the Indian economy is over 13 per cent of the GDP and The logistics market is expected to reach over $125 billion in 2010. |
| Presently, the market is dominated by majors such as TNT Speedage, Gati, Safeexpress, DHL and AFL. |
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