Pantaloon plans to invest Rs 250 cr in 10 new malls

With this, India's largest listed retailer will add another 1.5-1.7 million sq ft to its existing retail space of 14 million sq ft, Future Group founder and Chief Executive Officer Kishore Biyani told PTI.

"There will be 9-10 Central malls in the country within the next 12-18 months. The average cost of setting up a Central mall is about Rs 25 crore," Biyani said.

"We plan to expand Central mall further into some of the country's other consumption centres like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Vizag, Raipur and Jaipur," he added.

The lifestyle retailing mall, which set up shop in Indore earlier this month, will also have a presence in Surat, Thane and Nashik. Besides, South Mumbai will have one Central mall spread over one lakh sq ft at Tardeo, he said.

The supermarket major will fuel the expansion through Rs 367.50 crore (Rs 3.67 billion) it raised through preferential issue of equity shares and warrants last month.

It also plans to raise additional long term funds of up to Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in one or more tranches through issuance of securities to various investors.

PRIL will also roll out six Big Bazaar and eight Food Bazaar stores by July-end, a company statement said.