Pantaloon Retail India Ltd is to invest Rs 100 crore in the next two years for expanding its retail stores across the country.

Under the proposed expansion plan, the company is planning to lease out additional 9 lakh sq.ft. area and reach the total leased area to 15 lakh sq.ft. by June 2005 for its retail stores under the brands - Pantaloon, Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar.

Pantaloon proposes to fund this expansion through Rs 50 crore of bank borrowings, Rs 30-32 crore from the preferential issue to the promoters and the balance through internal accruals.

Mr Kishore Biyani, Managing Director, Pantaloon told Business Line, "Borrowings from the various banks have already being tied up and promoters will be subscribing the preferential issue after the approval of the shareholders." He said the preferential issue would have lock-in period of one year from the date of allotment.

With these funds the company would set-up retail stores in cities such Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Nagpur, Bangalore and Kolkata.

Out of the total proposed space to be acquired around 5 lakh sq.ft. would be acquired by the end of this year in various cities. Apart from this, by end of this year or January next year in Bangalore a shopping mall under the Victoria Mall brand in an area of 1.25 lakh sq.ft. is likely to come up.

At present the company has retail stores in Mumbai (2) and one each in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Gurgaon (near Delhi).

Mr Biyani said with the completion of the 15 lakh sq.ft., the company is targeting a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore by the end of June 2005. According to Mr Biyani the company is targeting a net profit margin of 4 per cent (that is Rs 40 crore) on Rs 1,000 crore turnover.

In the first nine months of the accounting year (July 2002-March 2003), Pantaloon net sales was Rs 293.45 crore and net profit was Rs 7.82 crore. Last year, the net sales was at Rs 280 crore and net profit at Rs 7.02 crore.