Future Group in talks with Lawson to sell stake in unit

Future Group, which owns the Pantaloon Retail chain, is in talks with Japan's convenience store chain Lawson Inc to sell a 49% stake in its foods sourcing and manufacturing operations, the Economic Times reported.

Future Group has signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture with Lawson that could see Japan's No. 2 convenience store chain buy into a holding company controlling many of Future's foods businesses, the newspaper said on Wednesday, citing sources. Future Group and Lawson could not immediately be reached by Reuters for a comment. Financial terms of the planned joint venture have not been finalised yet, one of the sources told the Economic Times, adding the Japanese firm could invest about Rs 30 billion (USD 624 million) in the first tranche of funding. In June, Lawson said it planned to step up its overseas expansion to tap strong growth in Asia.