The Hindu Business Line : Aditya Birla group to take over Trinethra

The Aditya Birla group is set to start its retail play through a take-over of Andhra Pradesh-based Trinethra Super Retail Ltd, which runs a chain of over 100 food and grocery stores in South India. Sources close to the talks between the two entities confirmed the deal, but would not elaborate on the financial details.

Trinethra, whose turnover was around Rs 170 crore in FY-06, has 83 stores in Andhra Pradesh, 26 in Bangalore and 15 in Chennai. Couple of stores are coming up in Kerala and it has been nursing plans for entering several tier-II cities in the South.

It operates its stores under the brand name Trinethra in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and under `Fabmall' in Karnataka. It also has a format called `Quality First' for commodities such as rice, wheat and pulses.

Mega plan

The company has set up processing and sorting factories in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Ernakulam to clean and sort fresh produce. The majority stake in Trinethra is owned by India Value Fund, managed by GW Capital Pvt Ltd (GWC).

The private equity investor moved in when it helped Trinethra acquire Bangalore-based Fabmall two years ago at a cost of around Rs 45 crore. GWC had picked up an undisclosed, but majority, stake in the consolidated venture. This acquisition also involved buying out ICICI Venture's stake in Trinethra.

The AV Birla group is understood to have a mega plan to enter the retail business, assigning responsibility for this to Mr Sumant Sinha, Group Financial Officer. The group has also been doing some intense hiring on this front, having recently recruited executives from Pantaloon's Food Bazaar and other retail ventures.

This would only be part of the AV Birla group's retail business, which eventually include department stores as well.

Indian corporates such as the Reliance, Bharti group have recently unveiled their plans to enter the nascent organised retail business in the country.

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