PANTALOON
Double or Quits
Kishore Biyani is India’s most successful retailer to date. And he wants to stay that way. Even if it means wagering everything he has built so far.
Is Kishore Biyani a retailer or a fund manager? That question might well be asked of him in the not too distant future. Over the last few months, Future Capital Holdings (FCH), led by CEO Sameer Sain, has stitched together a fully integrated financial services business model. FCH has already become the fastest growing start-up in the alternative asset management business in India with almost $830 million in assets. Now, it has big plans in insurance, retail lending and forex services. “Whether we have a consumer who wants to leverage future income to realise his aspirations today, or wants to save and invest, or buy protection for his family, we want to be a part of it,” says Sain. He believes that in 5-7 years, FCH’s bottom line will be bigger than the retail business! In the insurance business, the Future Group has managed to wrest a 74 per cent stake in a joint venture by investing just Rs 100 crore (its JV partner invested the same amount for a 26 per cent stake). “Italian Assicurazioni Generali, ranked 21 on the Fortune 500 list, is a good fit for us because they derive almost 17 per cent of their sales from mall assurance. They have also partnered another retailer in the Philippines,” says Sain. Biyani estimates that with just a 1 per cent footfall conversion rate, the insurance business would have over 2 million customers. That would earn him huge fees on distribution and catapult the company to amongst the largest private insurance players by way of number of policies sold. FCH has promoted an