Indonesia: Walmart Stores Inc’s retail plans with India partner Bharti Enterprises are “not tenable” and both sides are looking for the best way to move forward, an executive with the US retailer has said.
Walmart was expected to make a decision on its Indian retail plans later this month and Bharti would accordingly decide if those plans matched its overall retail ambitions.
“We created a franchise in retail with Bharti in the hopes that there could be a potential freeing up (of foreign direct investment) that would allow it to potentially be the base of the business. But frankly, the FDI has passed,” said Walmart Asia chief executive Scott Price on the sidelines of the APEC conference in Bali, Indonesia
“That means the existing franchise to Bharti is not tenable as the base. What we are talking about with Bharti is what we do with that business.”
Walmart has an equal joint venture with Bharti under which it runs its Best Price Modern Wholesale Stores in India and the US retailer last year had called Bharti its “natural partner” to open its retail stores in the country.
In July, Reuters reported Bharti was looking to exit its joint venture with Walmart.
India permitted foreign retailers to own 51 per cent of their Indian operations in September 2012, but ambiguity around rules governing the policy has ensured no foreign retailer has so far applied to enter the country.
“I don’t see how any foreign retailer can comply and quite honestly no domestic retailer is complying either,” Mr Price said.
Despite the uncertainty over the retail business, Mr Price said that the US retailer was not planning on leaving India and was actually hoping to expand in the wholesale business.
“We are committed to India and we are not thinking of leaving India anytime soon.”
He also said Walmart had no immediate acquisition plans in China but was keeping its eyes open for opportunities.
The US retailer also had no plans for expansion into Thailand or Indonesia, two countries where supermarkets have faced tough competition from local mini-markets.
