Videocon Industries’ arm defers stake-sale planco

Videocon Industries’ subsidiary -- Next Retail -- has deferred the plan to offload a 40 per cent stake in the company. Earlier, Videocon Industries had said it would sell a 40 per cent stake in Next Retail to a foreign player in 2013. Despite being a multi-brand retailer, Next Retail would now focus on home-grown brands such as Videocon and Electrolux. Next Retail has shifted its outlets from the metro markets to tier two and three cities where it expects its largest selling Videocon brand to fare better than the strong multinational brands. Almost 25 per cent of its sales come from the Videocon brand in categories such as flat panel TVs and refrigerators. Further, the company is planning to enhance its presence in states such as Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Videocon Industries, established two decades ago, is a global conglomerate with market capitalization of $2.5 billion. Videocon’s businesses’ consists of manufacturing, marketing and distribution of consumer electronics products and oil & gas extraction.