Indian retail market is attractive: Capital Shopping

David Fischel, chief executive, Capital Shopping Centres Group UK and Nikhil Chaturvedi, managing director, Prozone CSC spoke about future strategies for their partnerships on CNBC-TV18’s special show, In Conversation with Prozone CSC.

Explaining the prospects of Indian market, Fischel said, “We are very attracted with India prospects, the growth of organized retail business, people moving from the country to the cities, an inexorable growth story.” About their business strategy in India, Fischel added, “Our strategy is to replicate the approach adopted in the UK, which is to be single-minded and to focus on the top-quality shopping centres.” Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview Q: You are an FTSE 100 Company amongst the top 20 REITs in the world. Why the decision to invest in India? Fischel: We have been an investor here for over five years now through Prozone. We are very attracted with India prospects, the growth of organized retail business, people moving from the country to the cities, an inexorable growth story. We believed it was a market that was worthwhile getting in at an early stage. Q: You are a globally renowned property professional. What is your vision, your strategy for Prozone CSC in India? Fischel: Our strategy is to replicate the approach adopted in the UK, which is to be single-minded and to focus on the top-quality shopping centres. So, with Prozone what we want to do over time is build a portfolio of some of India’s finest shopping centres and just stick to that strategy really. Q: As you moved into the real estate sector what prompted your decision to partner with CSC? Chaturvedi: I think our biggest learning has been that when we actually went and saw their centres and the way they have built it over the last 35 years, we realized that property is a very tough business and there are different asset classes. The experience and the years of toiling which they have actually put into the business actually helps us make 10 less mistakes than the competition. That’s how we think. I think it’s been a very fruitful learning and that’s some of the biggest learning’s we have got from them. They are UK’s largest property company with almost 14 assets, but what we learnt from them was 14 of the assets are amongst the top 25 assets of the UK. So, it is the quality of the property and it is not the quantity of properties. So, there were lot of learning’s which came from them and I think I can give you 100 reasons why I partnered with them. For complete interview, watch accompanying videos…