Walmart-owned Flipkart Group has agreed to acquire a 7.8% stake in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL) which owns lifestyle brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England.
As part of the deal, Flipkart will invest Rs 1,500 Cr (approximately $204 million at current exchange rates) into ABFRL, it said in a statement.
The Bengaluru-based ecommerce major, which owns and operates a dedicated fashion vertical under Myntra, aims to enhance its consumer fashion segment with this strategic investment while ABFRL will use this capital to strengthen its balance sheet and propel growth.
Flipkart said it will offer its technology prowess to enhance ABFRL’s omni-channel capabilities and customer experiences.
ABFRL will use the funds to speed up the execution of its digital transformation strategy to deepen its consumer connection and augment its backend capabilities, the statement added. It also aims to scale-up its play in emerging high-growth fashion categories such as innerwear, athleisure, casual wear and ethnic wear. These categories will lead the next phase of growth for the company.
Besides the lifestyle brands, ABFRL also owns ethnic brands Jaypore and Shantanu & Nikhil; international multi-brand retailer the Collective; and operates international brands such as Simon Carter, fast fashion brand Forever 21 and a bunch of mono brands and premium global brands in India. ABFRL also operates a clothing retail chain under ‘Pantaloons’ brand. The Company has a network of 3,004 stores, presence across approximately 23,700 multi-brand outlets with over 6,700 point of sales in department stores across India.
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