Biyani to list Future Lifestyle next quarter

Future Group will list Future Lifestyle Fashions on the stock exchanges next quarter, CEO Kishore Biyani said on Thursday. He did not give details.

With this, the group will have three listed companies under its fold: Future Lifestyle Fashion, Pantaloon Retail India and Future Ventures India.

The group had demerged its fashion business in November last year and set up a new company – Future Lifestyle Fashions – which now has all the fashion brands previously held by Pantaloon Retail and Future Ventures. It also transferred a debt of Rs1,226 crore to this new entity with a turnover target of `4,000 crore by the end of next fiscal.

Axis Capital was the advisor to the company on the demerger.

To recall, before going in for this restructuring, Biyani had sold off 50.1% stake in Pantaloon Department Store (part of Pantaloon Retail) to raise Rs1,600 crore.

Experts said the sale of stake to a competitor had increased the need to step up focus on its fashion business – something it achieved through the restructuring.

“This move was aimed at increasing focus on the different segments of the business and also in order to monetise the non-core investments such as insurance,” said an analyst with a foreign brokerage.

A Morgan Stanley report said the restructuring has helped give investors better clarity and understanding of the business.

With this realignment, the group will have three listed companies under its fold: Future Lifestyle Fashion, Pantaloon Retail India and Future Ventures India.

On the budget, Biyani said, “The service tax that has been levied on the rental, on the property should be made VAT-able. We are also hoping that GST gets rolled out and now that there is a roadmap, we are hopeful about it.”