Sangeetha Mobiles set to raise Rs 100 Crore PE Fund

Bengaluru based mobile-phone retail chain Sangeetha Mobiles Pvt. Ltd is all set for pan India expansion by raising over Rs 100 crore through private equity funds. The company plans to go beyond the existing 150 stores in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to over 250 stores by the end of the financial year and is aiming for master franchisee options in other states as well.

“We expect the project to start with an investment of Rs 10 crore. The time for launch and the pan-India expansion of retail stores depends on the availability of funds” quoted L Subhash Chandra, MD, Sangeetha Mobiles. The company would look at monetising the PE funds in tranches, as per the requirement for phased expansion and would look at a total investment of around Rs 50 crore this year.

The company is also looking at launching its own branded GSM mobile handset which would be manufactured by third party makers but will be sold exclusively at the compnay’s own retail outlets.  The company had, in 2002, ventured into selling its own CDMA, Eurotel, which was supplied to Tata Indicom to be sold in the six states it had operations in. However, it sold around 100,000 handsets before the CDMA ceased to be a trend.