Nirula’s plans expansion at home, abroad

NEW DELHI: Fast food chain Nirula’s is eyeing a mega expansion that will see it investing far beyond the Rs 100 crore corpus earmarked earlier over the next three years.

And this would be possible only by a restructuring of its ownership pattern. Navis Partners, the Malaysian private equity fund which currently holds majority stake in Nirula’s, is in negotiations with India Hospitality Corp for shedding some of its equity in the chain.

IHC is a New York-based special purpose acquisition company, interested in buying out a part of Nirula’s equity in return for funding the chain’s expansion beyond North India.

Nirula’s managing director Sameer Kuckreja told DNA Money.

“Negotiations between Navis and IHC are on for stake sale. This would not only provide us with growth capital, it could take our brand further than we planned earlier.”

Kuckreja did not disclose how much equity Navis is willing to shed or at what price. But he pointed out that in the second phase of ownership restructuring, Navis Capital has begun talks with IHC for acquiring up to 20% stake in the latter.

The ultimate ownership of Nirula’s would remain distributed between Navis, Kuckreja (who is a minority shareholder) and IHC.

Kuckreja said Nirula’s runs 52 outlets in five states of North India now but by 2010, the company would have 200 outlets all across the country. Currently, Nirula’s runs two hotels, three bars, four casual dining restaurants and other restaurants. Kuckreja said many new formats - such as food courts and an express, ready-to-eat format - have already been introduced. The company eventually also plans to open outlets outside India.