Wal-Mart enters Indian Market

Monday, November 27, 2006

After talks ended between Bharti Enterprises and Britain's Tesco retail chain last week, now US supermarket giant Wal-Mart has announced it is about to enter into the Indian retail market, in a joint agreement with Bharti.

Wal-Mart and Bharti Enterprises said they have signed a deal to "jointly explore business opportunities" within India.

Bharti had also recently talked to France's Carrefour and Germany's Metro according to reports.

Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal said Bharti and Wal-Mart intend to open "several hundred" stores across India under the Wal-Mart brand name.

The Bharti joint venture is a major opportunity for Wal-Mart to gain a strength in a market analysts expect will double in value to $637 billion by 2015.

Large overseas retailers such as Tesco and Wal-Mart are currently barred at the retail level in India, but not in the wholesale market. Mr Mittal said the deal with Wal-Mart complied with existing government rules, suggesting Wal-Mart will handle the supply side of the operation, while Bharti will run the stores.