Aditya Birla Fashion to acquire 51% stake in TCNS Clothing for Rs 1,650 crore

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL) on Friday said it will be acquiring a 51 per cent stake in TCNS Clothing, which owns leading labels like W, Aurelia, Wishful, Folksong, and Elleven, for Rs 1,650 crore. 

The transaction will be carried out through the acquisition of the founding promoter's stake through a SPA and a conditional public open offer followed by a merger between the two entities, the company said in an exchange filing on Friday. 

ABFRL said it will make a conditional open offer to acquire up to a 29 per cent stake at Rs 503 per share from public shareholders and acquire the remaining stake from the founder promoters to reach an overall shareholding of 51 per cent in TCNS. 

Consequently, TCNS will be amalgamated with ABFRL under the merger scheme wherein public shareholders of TCNS (as of effective date) will receive 11 shares of ABFRL for every 6 shares that they hold in TCNS. 

“The TCNS deal is indeed a significant milestone as it complements our existing portfolio of exceptional brands across the entire spectrum of Indian fashion. By embracing TCNS's portfolio of loved women’s ethnic brands, we are reinforcing our commitment to ethnic wear, the largest category in the apparel industry," Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, said. 

With this acquisition, ABFRL’s ethnic wear portfolio is expected to reach Rs 5,000 crore in the next three years. TCNS had sales of Rs 896 crore during FY22. Arvinder Singh Pasricha, Onkar Singh Pasricha, Saranpreet Pasricha & Parmeet Pasricha are promoters of the company. 

The Aditya Birla Group created Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail (ABFRL) by merging apparel-making Madura Fashion, Lifestyle division from Aditya Birla Nuvo (ABNL), and Pantaloon in 2015. The country's largest listed branded apparel company’s annual sales are about Rs 8,136 crore. 

The company has about 3,200 stores for brands including Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England. Besides, Pantaloons has another 396 stores. The company also runs women's fashion brand Forever21. 

In the past few years, the company has also acquired stakes in Indian luxury designers like Sabyasachi, Tarun Tahiliani, Masaba Gupta, among others. 

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