TVS Shriram Growth Fund I is taking a significant minority equity stake with an investment of Rs.65 crores in Landmark Limited, a leading book and music retail chain that is a subsidiary of Trent Limited. Landmark currently operates over 20 stores, many of which are large format stores, across leading cities in India with over 2 lakh square feet of retail space.
Commenting on the investment, Mr. Noel N. Tata, Managing Director of Trent Limited and Chairman of Landmark, said, “We are excited about the equity investment into Landmark, and look forward to partnering with TVS Shriram Growth Fund in our journey to scale up the Landmark’s retail business.”
Announcing the investment, Mr. Gopal Srinivasan, founder and Chairman of TVS Capital Funds Limited, the investment manager of the Fund, said, “Landmark is a marquee investment for us and we are excited to enable the next wave of growth at one of the leading specialty retailers in India. Under the leadership of Mr. Noel Tata, we believe Landmark is well positioned to expand further across India. We are delighted to be associating with Trent from the Tata Group.”
TVS Shriram Growth Fund I is targeting consumer consumption driven opportunities, like organized retail businesses, and Landmark is the first investment of the Fund in retail segment. Mr. Suresh Raju, Executive Director of TVS Capital Funds Limited, said, “There is a large untapped potential in the organized retail industry with growing middle class and changing consumer behavior across India. We believe, Landmark has built a strong brand over the years and is well positioned to serve consumers with product mix consisting of books, music, gifts, toys, stationery, home, gaming and technology accessories.”
Mr. P Venkatesalu, CFO of Trent Limited, said, “With equity infusion into Landmark Limited, growth capital requirements of the business as per our current plan are mostly addressed. We look forward to execution of the growth plans over the next few years.”
Landmark Limited started as a Chennai based company that was established in 1987 as a book store at Apex Plaza in Chennai. Landmark operates stores across multiple formats, including 'Big-Box' stores in metros, airport and hotel stores. In fiscal year ending March 31st, 2009, Landmark had gross revenues of Rs.196 crores.
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About TVS Shriram Growth Fund I
TVS Shriram Growth Fund I is a Rs.600cr domestic rupee fund that is established with a vision to develop and nurture India’s mid-cap businesses into world class companies. It is a growth equity fund registered with SEBI under the Venture Capital Funds regulations. The fund is managed by TVS Capital Funds Limited, the investment manager. The fund is targeting investments across consumer consumption and business services sectors, such as retail, health care delivery, education, hospitality, food & agro, FMCG, restaurants, media and entertainment, facilities management, institutional catering and security services. The fund will be a strategic growth partner that understands the nuances of building businesses and can offer management expertise and professional services along the expansion path. The sponsors of the fund are the TVS Group and Shriram Group.
About Trent
Established in 1998 Trent is one of the pioneers of modern large format retailing in India. Trent operates ‘Westside’, one of India’s largest and fastest growing chain of lifestyle retail stores, and one of the most recognised retail brands in the country. In 2004 Trent entered into the hypermarket business with ‘Star Bazaar’, which addresses the varied shopping needs of the entire family right from grocery to apparel. 2005 saw the acquisition of ‘Landmark’ by Trent – a books and music chain of stores which offers a large assortment of books, music, movies and stationery. In 2007 Trent became the exclusive franchisee of Sisley the premium fashion brand of the Benetton group and October 2008, saw the launch of a new value apparel format, ‘Fashion Yatra’.
Landmark is the largest book and music retail chain in India. Toys, stationery and gift items complete the Landmark offering. Landmark stores boast of an exhaustive range of over 1,00,000 titles in books and over 1,00,000 titles in music. www.landmarkonthenet.com is the chain’s online e-commerce site with over 2 million titles in books. Landmark is present in 9 cities with 13 large format stores besides 7 hotel book stores and 5 airport stores.