Tesco warns against "frenzy" in India

By Rachel Sanderson

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Tesco (TSCO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has criticized the "frenzy" being whipped up among foreign retailers about entering India and said it will only launch there subject to a change to laws that prohibit non-Indian ownership.

"People are saying, 'there's a land grab', 'there's a land grab'. There's never been a land grab," Finance and Strategy Director Andrew Higginson said at the Reuters Consumer and Retail Summit in London.

"It's baloney. It is driving a kind of frenzy. And it is illegal for us even to go into India."

Tesco's joint venture talks with Indian conglomerate Bharti collapsed in December. The deal would have given it an early foothold in a $300-billion retail industry forecast to more than double in size by 2015.

Foreign multiple-brand retailers in India are limited to cash-and-carry and franchise or license operations and Bharti went on to strike a deal with U.S. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Tesco's comments add to signs some of the early fervor European retailers showed about conquering the fast-growing subcontinent and offset slowing consumption at home is ebbing in the face of legal and operational obstacles.

Carrefour (CARR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's second-largest retailer, has cooled its plans to enter India until regulation is clarified, switching its focus to Russia in the short term.

Kishore Biyani, chief executive of Pantaloon Retail (PART.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), one of India's fastest-growing shopping groups, in March told Reuters that estimates that organized retail could grow to a third of the market from 3 percent now were overly ambitious.  Continued...