Aditya Birla Fashion to raise Rs 1,500 crore from Flipkart; stk jumps 6.5%

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail on Friday approved to raise Rs 1,500 crore by way of preferential issue to Flipkart Investments Private Limited, a foreign portfolio investor, the company said in an exchange filing. With this infusion, Flipkart Group will own 7.8% equity stake in ABFRL on a fully diluted basis.

According to the deal terms, AB Fashion and Retail will issue 7,31,70,732 fully paid-up equity shares, at a price of Rs 205 per share (face value of Rs 10 each) aggregating to Rs 1,500 crore, ranking pari passu to the existing fully paid-up equity shares. The promoter and promoter group companies of ABFRL will hold about 55.13 per cent upon completion of the issuance.

"The Investment Agreement inter-alia provides for some rights such as preemption rights and right of first refusal which are for a limited period of between 1-5 years from the date of allotment of equity shares or if the equity shareholding of the Investor falls below a certain threshold," it said.

The agreement will be subject to customary approvals including approval of the shareholders’ of the Company and such regulatory approvals as maybe required.

"Given the complementary strengths of ABFRL and Flipkart Group, this partnership has the potential to dramatically accelerate the growth of the apparel industry in India and reshape apparel commerce. This deal also provides a tremendous opportunity to build scale of existing brands and expand its brand portfolio into emerging consumer segments," said Ashish Dikshit, managing director, ABFRL.

ABFRL plans to use this capital to strengthen its balance sheet and accelerate its growth trajectory. The company plans to aggressively scale-up its existing businesses where it holds strong, market leading positions while increasing presence in emerging high-growth categories, the management said in a statement.

Furthermore, ABFRL will aggressively accelerate execution of its large-scale digital transformation strategy that will deepen the consumer connect of its brands, expand reach of its diverse brand portfolio, build strong omni-channel functionalities and augment its backend capabilities; positioning it amongst the most comprehensive Omni-channel fashion players in the country, it said.

On completion of this transaction, ABFRL would have successfully executed a capital raise of Rs 2,500 crore since April 1, 2020, despite the challenging macroeconomic conditions since the onset of Covid-19.

That apart, the company has also, in furtherance of the existing B2B arrangements with Flipkart India Private Limited, entered into a commercial agreement in relation to the sale and distribution of various brands of the company.

The stock of the company hit a high of Rs 163.5 piece on the BSE on Friday, surging 6.5 per cent, as against 0.4 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.