Carrefour in talks with Indian realty firm - paper

MUMBAI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - France's Carrefour (CARR.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world's No. 2 retailer, is in talks with Indian real estate firm Parsvnath Developers Ltd (PARV.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to set up hypermarkets in India, the Mint paper said on Wednesday, citing two people close to the deal.

The sources said Carrefour was in the middle stages of dialogue with Parsvnath, the newspaper reported.

Earlier this week, Parsvnath had said it would set up hypermarkets with an overseas partner, Mint said.

Carrefour CEO Jose Luis Duran said in newspaper interviews earlier this month that the firm had identified two or three potential partners and hoped to sign a joint venture in coming months. See [ID:nL26412879] and [ID:nL19588086]

Mint said Carrefour's general manager in India declined to comment on a possible deal with Parsvnath.

Officials at Parsvnath could not be reached for comment.

Modern retail faces political obstacles in India because of fears of millions of small shopkeepers that they could lose their jobs in the fragmented but fast-growing industry, which is is forecast to double in size by 2015 from an estimated $350 billion.

(Reporting by Hiral Vora, Editing by John Mair)