HPCL to provide retail space to Vishal Retail

18 Mar, 2008, 2023 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: Vishal Retail, which runs a chain of specialty stores and hypermarkets, has signed an agreement with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd for opening stores at its select outlets in the country.

"HPCL has a chain of around 8,000 outlets across India and according to the MoU, we will open our stores or set up warehouses at some select HPCL outlets," Vishal Retail CMD R C Agarwal told reporters.

The pricing of the retail space has been fixed on the basis of the size of cities. "Categorisation of cities has been done to decide rentals. Delhi and Mumbai will fall in A segment, followed by other metros in category B, state capitals in C segment and remaining in D category," Agarwal said.

He, however, refused to divulge further details about the rentals and exact pricing strategy per segment. Also details on when and where the first outlets will be opened are to be worked out, he added.

Vishal Retail had said yesterday that it will raise around Rs 200 crore through preferential issue of shares in the next 2-3 months to fund the company's expansion plans.

The Rs 100 crore corpus, which was raised through the initial public offering, had already been utilised and more money was required to push the expansion plans further, he said.

The Delhi-based company, which currently operates over 90 stores across the country, expects to clock a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore in the current fiscal.