NEW DELHI: Cedar Support Services, a Bharti Group entity, has exited from Kishore Biyani-led Future Enterprises by selling its 13.64 per cent stake for an estimated sum of over Rs 240 crore. Cedar Support Services sold its entire 61,919,069 shares in Future Enterprises on May 17.
The offloading was carried out through a block deal and open market transaction, Future Enterprises said in a regulatory filing. Among the buyers of the shares were Future Enterprises’ promoter Central Departmental Stores, and Bennett, Coleman and Company.
This sale comes at a time when Cedar Services is said to be in talks with several potential investors for selling its 9.23 per cent stake in Future Retail. In May 2015, Future group agreed to acquire Bharti group’s retail business under the EasyDay chain in an all-stock deal worth Rs 750 crore to create one of the biggest supermarket chains.
While Cedar is looking to sell its stake, there is a strong buzz that e-commerce giant Amazon is looking to buy around 10 per cent stake in the retail chain. Since the acquisition of Flipkart by Amazon’s US rival Walmart, many reports have surfaced about a strategic deal in the making between Amazon and the Future group’s boss.