Tata Sons’ wholly-owned subsidiary Infiniti Retail Ltd. has announced its decision to acquire Australian retail chain Woolworths’s Indian business for Rs 193.5 crore (A$35 million).

Woolworths Wholesale (India) has been a back-end supplier to electronics & durables retailer Infiniti Retail for around six years. Infiniti Retail is best known for its Croma consumer electronic goods chain. At present, Infiniti Retail operates seventy-three Croma and twelve Croma Zip stores across India.

Ajit Joshi, chief executive of Infiniti Retail, said Woolworths Wholesale (India) would be merged into Infiniti, once the deal is completed. Employees of Woolworths Wholesale (India) will also be merged into the workforce of Infiniti.

Speaking about the deal, Joshi said, “Once the deal is complete, we will merge Woolworths Wholesale India into Infiniti. We will also take their employees under our wing.”

Infiniti Retail, which closed financial year of 2011-12 with sales of nearly 2,000 crore, had received more than 500 crore in funds from its parent company prior to the deal. But, it is still suffering losses.

With the latest purchase, the total funding by Tata Sons in Infiniti Retail has soared to more than Rs 700 crore.