Wal-Mart Clinches Indian Retail Deal

Excerpt from our Wall Street Breakfast, a one-page summary of this morning's key market-moving and stock-moving stories:

Wal-Mart to Enter India in Bharti Retail Tie-up [Reuters]

Summary: Wal-Mart closed a deal with the Indian Bharti Enterprises Ltd. to open retail stores in India beginning in 2007, beating out the British Tesco Plc. Each company will invest $100 million at first; subsequent investments could reach $1.46 billion. The stores will be owned by Bharti Enterprises using the Wal-Mart franchise. The Indian retail market is currently valued at $300 billion. However, small local retailers account for 97% of the market. Analysts forecast market growth of $427 billion in 2010 and $637 billion in 2015. If foreign companies want to reach the Indian markets, government regulations require them to partner with a local business. Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd., one of the company's subsidiaries, rose 2.6% after the deal was announced.
Related links: Media coverage: MarketWatch, Forbes, Times of India . Commentary: When Goliath Stumbles • Retail Discounters: Hope Their Exotic Investments Excel. Conference call transcripts: Wal-Mart F3Q07.
Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Wal-Mart (WMT). Competitors: Target (TGT), Walgreen (WAG), Costco (COST) • ETFs: Retail HOLDRs (RTH), Vanguard Consumer Staples ETF (VDC), Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG), Market 2000 HOLDRs (MKH)

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