Company to merge its retail operations with ‘Florista’ post-acquisition
Bangalore-headquartered rose exporter, Karuturi Global, is planning to acquire a majority stake in the Mumbai-based flower retailer ‘Florista’ for an undisclosed amount in its bid to strengthen its retail presence in the country.
Presently, the company has its own retail flower wing ‘Flower Xpress’ with a turnover of around Rs 10 crore.
Karuturi Global, which will take a 54 per cent stake in ‘Florista’ will merge its own retail business with the acquired entity, the company said in a filing today.
‘Florista’, with 15 flower boutiques in the country, will help in consolidating the company’s retail operation through this acquisition, it added.
The flower exporter is also looking to scale up number of retail outlets in the country.
Also Read
“Karuturi intends to aggressively grow the retail network in India to over 100 in the next two years,” the company said. It also said the revenues from its retail operations were expected to improve post-acquisition without divulging any further information.
Karuturi Global, a Rs 700 crore firm, has been deriving 95 per cent of its revenues from rose exports.
However, as part of the diversification drive, the company is betting big on agriculture. Karuturi Global expects Rs 80 crore revenue from the agriculture business during this fiscal.
The company, which had already bought around 311,700 hectares of land on lease in Ethiopia, will start agricultural cultivation in a phased manner. It plans to grow crops like cereals, sugar and palm for future exports.
In addition to this large scale diversification, Karuturi Global has been into the business of cultivating gherkins which brought in revenues of Rs 15 crore during last fiscal.
Karuturi Global reported an increase in revenues by 20 per cent in FY10 to Rs 532 crore from Rs 445 crore.
No dealing with banned brokers
Karuturi Global has said that the they have no direct or indirect dealings with any of the Brokers banned by SEBI, which also verifiable from the SEBI notification available in the website of SEBI. The company has clarified its position after its stock price took a hit after market rumours indicated that they had dealings with brokers banned by SEBI.