Birla may enter e-tail via buyout or new set-up

The chairman of the $40-billion Aditya Birla group, which is engaged in businesses from miningand financial services to telecommunications, is open to either acquiring e-retailers or building one from scratch, Birla said in a November 10 interview at his Mumbai corporate headquarters Free Share Tips

"There's a lot of ground for new ventures in e-commerce," he said. "I am not saying that we can take an Amazon head-on. But there are a lot of green spaces Commodity Trading Tips

Surging Internet access in the world's fastest growing smartphone market is buoying online shopping and luring investors including Amazon.com Inc's Jeffrey P Bezos and SoftBank Corp's Masayoshi Son. SoftBank last month announced an investment of $627 million in Indian e-retailer Snapdeal.com, while Amazon said in July that it plans to spend $2 billion in India. Birla, 47, joins peer Mukesh Ambani, whose Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is planning to start "multi-channel shopping in the coming year," according to its annual report published in May. "The potential of e-commerce combined with the network of physical store locations" will offer its customers both choice and convenience, the report said Stock Market Trading Tips

Birla declined to reveal more on his e-commerce plans. The group is looking at many business verticals and has "not zeroed-in on any" specific one yet, he said. 

Online sales in Asia's third-largest economy will jump sevenfold to $22 billion by 2018, according to estimates by CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. Birla is looking for investors in his existing bricks-and-mortar retail businesses, which include the "More" chain of supermarkets and Pantaloons apparel stores. Still, he said e-tailing is the way forward. 

'It reflects the new India. It's about new lifestyles, new spending patterns, it's about new family structures," he said. "And we want to be in that space Financial Astrology Trading Tips