Ikea, the Swedish home furnishings retailer, said yesterday it was abandoning efforts to invest up to €300m ($423m) setting up stores in India, after failing to persuade New Delhi to ease foreign investment restrictions on retailers.
Ikea, which already sources textiles from India for its stores, has tried for nearly two years to persuade the government to raise its foreign ownership limit on single-brand retail businesses, like itself, from the 51 per cent to 100 per cent.
Ian Duffy, Ikea's Asia Pacific retail manager, told the Financial Times: “Webelieved almost a year ago that a change in the regulations covering single-brand retailers was imminent. That change did not take place.”