Flipkart to buy 7.8 per cent stake in Adiya Birla Fashion

Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla's retail business will issue preference shares to Flipkart, giving it a 7.8 per cent stake, Aditya Birla Fashion said in a stock exchange filing

New Delhi: Walmart-owned Flipkart will buy a 7.8 per cent stake in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail for Rs 1,500 crore as it taps into the offline retail player’s large bank of apparel outlets to bolster its presence in the high-margin fashion business.

Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla’s retail business will issue preference shares to Flipkart, giving it a 7.8 per cent stake, Aditya Birla Fashion said in a stock exchange filing on Friday. The transaction was at Rs 205 per share, a 33.6 per cent premium to Thursday’s closing price of Rs 153.4. Aditya Birla Fashion’s current owners will hold a 55.1 per cent stake after the allotment.

While Flipkart will gain from Aditya Birla Fashion’s range of international and Indian brands, the deal will help the company cut down debt, which stood at Rs 2,776 crore as of March 31, 2020. The investment will give it a bigger foothold as it battles it out with rival Amazon.com and billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries, which is rapidly expanding its retail business via major acquisitions and funding from overseas investors, including Silver Lake and KKR.

In August, Reliance Retail Ventures, an arm of Reliance Industries, announced a plan to buy Indian retail pioneer Future Group’s units for Rs 24,713 crore. Aditya Birla Fashion — which owns the rights to sell Forever 21, American Eagle Outfitters and Ralph Lauren branded clothes, among others, in the country — has a network of about 3,000 stores, including Pantaloons fast-fashion chain. It also has a presence across approximately 23,700 multibrand outlets with over 6,700 points of sale in department stores.

Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said this partnership is an emphatic endorsement of the growth potential of India. “It also reflects our strong conviction in the future of the apparel industry in India, which is poised to touch $100 billion in the next 5 years. Fashion retail in India is set for robust long-term growth due to strong fundamentals of a large and growing middle class, favourable demographics, rising disposable incomes and aspiration for brands. Rapid growth of technology infrastructure will further accelerate this process. Over the years, we have shaped ABFRL into a strong platform to capture future growth opportunities in India. This partnership is a critical component of that strategy,” he said.