Shapoorjee Chandabhoy To Invest In Franchise Companies, Ace Tours and Liverpool Retail.

AHMEDABAD: Mumbai-BASED non-banking finance company (NBFC) Shapoorjee Chandabhoy Finvest Pvt Ltd (SCFPL) is planning to invest in two Gujarat-based small and medium-size companies — Ace Tour & Travel Ltd and Liverpool Retail India Ltd. The negotiations with both the companies that are into travel and readymade garment business are at the final stages and expected to conclude within the next few months.

If all goes as planned, SCFPL will pick up 26% stake in Ace Tour, a Surat-based travel company, for Rs 25 crore, and 20% in Liverpool Retail India Ltd, an Ahmedabad-based readymade garment retailing company, for Rs 15 crore.

Confirming the development, SCFPL president Farzan Ghadially told ET: “We are in the final stages of negotiation with both the companies. We see a lot of potential in both the sectors.” He further said the firm was looking at investments in the Rs 1 - 25 crore range, targeting small and medium size enterprises.

According to Liverpool MD Kailash Gupta: “The deal is yet to conclude. If done, we will be using the funds for further expansion.” Liverpool promoted by Vijay Singh Rathod and Kailash Gupta ventured into the readymade garment sector in 2001 and launched its fashion retail chain across the country under the brand name Liverpool in 2006.

Liverpool Retail recently added five family showrooms in Gujarat, Mumbai and Bangalore and plans to further scale up its presence in other parts of the country. “We intend to open up 50 family stores and also start our own garment manufacturing,” added Mr Gupta.

Currently, Liverpool sources its garments from third parties. With fresh capital infusion, it intends to source 25% of its garment requirements from in-house manufacturing. "It's a backward integration for us," he pointed out.

Ace Tour on the other hand wants to expand in western India especially in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Currently, the company has presence in four major cities of Gujarat and at a few locations in Maharashtra . Talking to ET, Raju Choksi MD of the Surat-based company said: “Once we are done with western India, then we will go for pan-India expansion.” Ace Tour & Travel was established in 1996 as a small family run neighborhood business, founded by Raju Choksi and Bharat Choksi. By 2008, the company expanded to seven branches. It now has 12 franchises in India and in the UK .

Tags:Invest In Franchise, Franchise Investments, Franchise Funding, Franchise Financing, Ace Tours, Travel Franchise, Raju Choksi, Liverpool retail, kailash gupta, vijay singh rathod, bharat choksi, Apparel Franchise

Source:22 Jun 2010, 1450 hrs IST,ET Bureau


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