Armani set for an Indian flight

The Italy-based designer house would soon launch retail stores in India as per a proposal approved by the Indian ministry.

A proposal from designer house Giorgio Armani to start a chain of retail stores in India was among the 20 applications on foreign direct investment approved by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday.

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The proposal from Armani is to hold a 51 per cent stake in a venture that would entail an investment of Rs.10 million to undertake single-brand retail trading of its branded products, an official statement said.

A similar proposal on single-brand retailing came from Richemont Services for a joint venture to sell Cartier products in the country, it added.

Another proposal cleared by the minister is from GS Strategic Investments Ltd of Mauritius for pumping 20 percent equity, worth Rs.3 billion, in a company engaged in commodity broking and other related activities.

Similarly, GTL Infrastructure of Mumbai, whose proposal was also among those cleared, wants to induct foreign equity worth Rs.2.17 billion by way of an overseas float and will reduce the domestic stake, but only up to permissible limits.

The other proposals included those from UTV Software Communications, Hathway Cable & Datacom, Tata Communications, Sumitomo Heavy Industry and Lafarge India.