Reliance Industries has submitted a Rs 288-crore (Rs 2.88 billion) bid to revive Super Bazar, an ailing shopping cooperative that has several shops in and around Delhi. The bid is well above the Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) offered by Indian Labour Cooperative Society along with Indian Potash Ltd.
The Centre had put the cooperative on the block after the Supreme Court asked it to explore ways for its revival. The Centre holds more than a 50 per cent stake in Super Bazar.
An evaluation committee constituted by the court was in favour of Reliance getting the bid on account of its financial capacity and development plan for reviving the cooperative, documents submitted by the panel to the court showed.
The panel's recommendations have been forwarded to the Supreme Court, which is expected to take a final decision at the next hearing.
Reliance has proposed to invest Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) in the share capital of Super Bazar, and another Rs 85 crore (Rs 850 million) in the working capital.
It will spend Rs 143 crore (Rs 1.43 billion) to revamp the chain, and expand its operations to include retailing of pharmaceuticals, fruit and vegetables, online shopping, and institutional sales.
Reliance has projected Super Bazar achieving an annual revenue of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in two-three years. After posting an accumulated loss of Rs 56 crore (Rs 560 million) in 2001-02, the cooperative was shut down.
The central government invited bids in May after the Supreme Court asked it to examine ways to revive the cooperative. The court's intervention came on a petition filed by the employee union against a June 2002 decision by the regulator for cooperatives to wind up Super Bazar.
The cooperative has a membership of 40,000, and 2,200 employees. Reliance, which is setting up a pan-India retail network, proposes to return the government equity of Rs 1.16 crore (Rs 11.6 million) after the revival.
The company proposes to put the co-operative back on the rails on the lines of its Mumbai "Sahakari Bhandar" chain.