Plaza plans 6 malls at Rs 3,000 crore

Shopping and entertainment centres developer Plaza Centers India said it plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) over the next three years to set up six new malls in various cities, starting with Pune.

The mall in Pune will entail an investment of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) and will be fully functional by 2011, the company said in a statement.

The company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Plaza Centres Group owned by Israeli firm Elbit Imaging Ltd, said it has also tied-up with PVR Cinemas as their multiplex partner.

It said Plaza Centres plans to set up other malls in Chennai, Bangalore and Kochi, besides setting up another one in Pune. "We are proud of our first venture launch in Pune and we plan to follow it up with six more such state-of-the-art malls in the country in the near future," Plaza Centers president and chief executive officer Ran Shtarkman said.

"Koregaon Park Plaza with an investment of almost Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) will be a completely functional mall...by 2011," he added.

The statement said that Plaza Centers has a global turnover of one billion euro and has more than 30 malls constructed or being developed in the eastern Europe.