Trent gains on buying TVS Shriram Fund's stake in Landmark

Trent, a part of Tata group, rose as much as 3 percent intraday on Tuesday as the company decided to buy private equity fund TVS Shriram Growth Fund's entire stake in Landmark for Rs 84 crore.

Trent runs lifestyle chain Westside (one of India's largest and fastest growing chain of lifestyle retail stores), Star Bazaar (a hypermarket chain), Landmark (a books and music chain), and Fashion Yatra (a complete family fashion store).

The board of directors of the company approved to purchase from TVS Shriram Growth Fund I its entire shareholding of 18,25,074 equity shares of Rs 10 each of Landmark Ltd (a subsidiary of the company).

It has also been agreed between the parties that the fund would retain an option to invest in a minority stake in Westland Limited (also a subsidiary of the company) at a future date.

According to a release sent to exchanges, the company would continue to pursue the build out of the Landmark format, increasingly focusing on family entertainment categories and seek to integrate these operations with the Westside business. "This is aimed at realizing cost and other operating synergies."

At 14:29 hours IST, shares went up 0.68 percent to Rs 1,153 amid heavy volumes on Bombay Stock Exchange.