Pantaloon to merge two units of its arm with itself

Under the plan to merge the two units with itself, effectively four lines of business -- consumer durables, home furnishing, home improvement and furniture -- will be spun-off from Home Solutions Retail (HSRIL) and transferred to Pantaloon Retail India Ltd (PRIL), which holds about 67 per cent in the subsidiary.

The company also said it will acquire the sports retail business from its wholly-owned subsidiary, Winner Sports Ltd.

"The board has approved demerger of consumer durables and home improvement business from Home Solutions Retail (India) Ltd," Pantaloon said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Now the merger proposal will be placed before PRIL's shareholders for the final approval.When contacted, a PRIL official said, "This is part of our strategy to consolidate our various businesses. It is intended to further integrate our business."
Biyani's Future Group, which owns various companies, including Big Bazaar, PRIL and HSRIL, is looking at scaling overall revenues of Rs 25,000 crore by 2015, up from Rs 10,000 crore last fiscal.

The group had earlier decided to spin off its retail chain Big Bazaar and list it. Home Solutions had raised Rs 120 crore in 2006 from ICICI Venture and Kotak SEAF India Fund. It had raised further Rs 150 crore last year through a rights issue.
ICICI Venture has a 15 per cent stake, while Kotak SEAF has a 6 per cent stake in Home Solutions. Speculation had been rife that the merger would give the investors more liquidity.

Home Solutions retails products like electronics, consumer durables, furniture and home improvement products.