Indivision India Partners, the private equity arm of Kishore Biyani's Future Group, has picked up over a 50% stake in Blue Foods. It operates a chain of restaurants under various brand names such as Copper Chimney, Bombay Blue, Noodle Bar, Gelato Italiano and Spaghetti Kitchen Cream Centre. The stake has been picked up for Rs 150 crore, reports Times of India.
Blue Foods was established by Sunil Kapur of Copper Chimney, Sanjiv Chona of Cream Centre, and the promoters of Royal Sporting House of Singapore in 2002. It formed a 50:50 joint venture with Pantaloon retail called Pan Foods Solutions. After the deal with Indivision, both Blue Foods and Pan Foods have been merged. An earlier report said that Anil Ambani Group was also in contention for the restaurant business.
Blue Foods operates through centralised kitchen in every city that sources and stocks all raw materials required for its various restaurants. Blue Foods also has a franchisee agreement with California-based Coffee Beans & Tea Leaf.
Future Group, which has a presence in malls across the country through its retail operations, has been running food courts in the malls. Future Capital Holdings also runs several real estate funds which invest in malls and other retail destinations.
Indivision has made several investments in the food and beverages segment. It picked up 33% stake in Mumbai-based processed foods company Capital Foods in 2006. Last year Indivision picked up 20% stake in Sula Wines for Rs 50 crore ($12.5 million).
There have been several deals in the restaurants space also. Earlier this year, SAIF partners picked up a stake in Speciality Restaurants, which runs Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta for Rs 90 crore. Also Kotecha Capital invested Rs 500 crore in United Pizza Restaurant for 49% stake.
