Ikea, the Swedish home furnishings retailer, said on Thursday it was abandoning efforts to invest up to €300m ($422m) setting up its 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 global stores, has tried and failed for nearly two years to persuade the government to raise its foreign ownership limit on single-brand retail businesses to 100 per cent, up from the current 51 per cent.