The burden of being Noel Tata

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Editor's note: Trent Ltd is India’s fourth largest organized retailer. While that doesn’t sound too bad, given that the organized retail sector is estimated at $91 billion, the reality is that the top two competitors are leagues ahead, and it has little chance of playing catch-up. Not only are Reliance Retail Ltd and DMart owned by Mukesh Ambani and Radhakishan Damani, respectively, two of the country’s richest men, their businesses have been going from strength to strength.   Privately held Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, the holding company of Reliance Retail, on 31 August, issued 170,758,520 shares at Rs 672.25 to parent Reliance Industries Ltd and raised Rs 11,650 crore. This, days after Reliance Industries announced its acquisition of most of the retail and logistics assets of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group for Rs 24,713 crore. While it is not clear whether Reliance Retail will deploy the entire proceeds of this infusion to fund its latest acquisition or if some of it will be used for its own expansion, the sheer size of the capital should be enough to indicate the high stakes battle playing …