NEW DELHI-- Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. is investing more than $100 million in its wholesale-store network
in India, even though government restrictions have convinced it not to
build its own big-box stores in Asia’s third-largest economy.
The world’s largest retailer has given its Indian unit a capital
injection of 6.2 billion rupees ($103 million) to help it boost its
current presence in India in the next five years to 70 wholesale
stores--where it sells only to other businesses like mom-and-pop shops,
restaurants and hotels--from 20 today. It is also ramping up its online
operations so it can give its wholesale customers 24-hour delivery for
anything they order online.
“The equity infusion is to fund the working capital and capex
requirements of our cash-and-carry business in India,” Rajneesh Kumar,
vice president for corporate affairs at Wal-Mart India, said in an
email.
India’s retail market, with about $400 billion a year in sales, is
expected to expand to more than $1.3 trillion by 2020, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Wal-Mart
WMT
-0.55%
has been lobbying for lowering barriers to foreign investment in the
retail sector in India. It entered the wholesale business in 2009,
expecting to eventually get the freedom to open its own supermarkets
aimed directly at Indian consumers.
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