Joint venture between Shoppers Stop and Nuance Group may come to an end

According to various market reports, the fashion and lifestyle retail major Shoppers Stop is likely to exit its joint venture with Swiss major, the Nuance Group, for setting up duty-free airport stores. The Nuance Group is one of the largest airport retailers in the world.
 
As per the reports, the customer care associate and managing director of Shoppers Stop, Govind Shrikhande, said in an interaction with a leading news daily that the company will exit the joint venture with Nuance Group in the coming quarters, also adding that the Indian retailing major has already taken total impairment of Rs 27 crore for an exit from the JV. Shoppers Stop has been working out the valuations for offloading its stakes in the JV and these stakes are most likely to be purchased by the Nuance Group.      
 
The two leading companies had signed a partnership deal in 2006 and had set up stores at the Mumbai and Bengaluru airports. While, Shoppers Stop initially had 50% stake in the joint venture, the company recently reduced it to 40%. Meanwhile, Shoppers Stop was trading with a gain of over 3% at Rs 354.05 per share at 1145 hours.