Tata Sons to invest Rs 950 cr in Trent to fund Star, Westside, Zudio

Zudio, Kochi

Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, will invest Rs 950 cr into Trent, the retail arm of the group.

The money will be used to fund the expansion of the group’s Westside, Star and Zudio retail chains, Trent said.

Star is a super market chain, while Zudio and Westside are clothing retailers.

Trent said it would also try to raise Rs 600 cr from non-promoter investors for funding the growth program. This, it said, would be done via a ‘qualified institutional placement’.

“The Company is witnessing positive traction for its lifestyle retail concepts and consequently pursuing a substantially accelerated growth programme across the Westside, Zudio and Star formats. The foregoing fund raising proposal was considered by the Board of Directors in the context of the Company’s funding requirements given the growth plans,” Trent said.

The exact date on which the funds will be infused by Tata Sons has not been disclosed.

Trent said the funds will be infused as equity investment via a preferential allotment, and the price at which the shares will be issued to the promoter group will be determined in accordance with SEBI norms.

Trent competes with groups such as Future Retail, Reliance Retail and Aditya Birla Retail.

It also has an online shopping portal known as TataCliq.com.