Aditya Birla Fashion to acquire Bewakoof for ₹200 cr

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail venture TMRW on Monday acquired a majority stake in e-commerce startup Bewakoof Brands for a total cash consideration of ₹200 crore.

The apparel retailer will acquire 73-80% stake in Bewakoof through a combination of primary equity and debt infusion along with secondary stake acquisition via share subscription agreement, loan agreement and share purchase agreement respectively, Aditya Birla Fashion says in a stock exchange filing.

TMRW, which aims to create a technology-led 'House of Brands' business over the next several years, also announced partnership with seven other digital-first lifestyle brands. The D2C brands include Berrylush, Natilene, Juneberry, Nauti Nati, Nobero, Urbano, and Veirdo.

These partnerships with the new-age founders have been struck within a few months of the launch of the venture, the company says.

Some of these transactions are subject to customary closing conditions and signing of definitive documents.

With these eight brands on board, TMRW claims it has achieved a revenue run-rate of ₹700 crore and is on a path to cross an annual revenue rate of over ₹1,500 crore in the next 12 months.

These deals come nine months after the Aditya Birla Group company set up a new subsidiary towards building a portfolio of new-age, digital brands across categories in fashion, beauty and other allied lifestyle segments.

"The investment in these 8 D2C brands establishes a strong foundation with a diversified portfolio across several fashion sub-categories. With this portfolio, TMRW has established a presence across a broad spectrum of apparel segments ranging from casual wear, kid's wear to western wear," the apparel retailer says.

"TMRW's vision is to partner with new-age founders by bringing in strategic, operational & technological capabilities in addition to growth capital. With synergistic investments that will power multiple brands, TMRW will enable blitz scaling and brand building," it adds.

Speaking about the investment, Ashish Dikshit, managing director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd, said, "By tapping into ABFRL's fashion capabilities and category expertise, TMRW is on the path to replicate the success in the digital first space by building the next generation of memorable brands that will drive India’s e-commerce growth."

The company further plans to expand in related lifestyle categories including beauty & personal care.

"With our investment and deep value-addition, we are confident in scaling existing leading brands to become category leaders as well as be the category creators in several emerging categories," says Prashanth Aluru, CEO and co-founder, TMRW.

Earlier this month, the retail and fashion arm of the Aditya Birla Group signed a pact with Galeries Lafayette, a French department store chain, to open luxury department stores and a dedicated e-commerce platform in India. Galeries Lafayette is known globally for its flagship location at Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.

With brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England and Pantaloons, Aditya Birla Fashion has a network of 3,468 stores, around 28,585 multi-brand outlets with 6,515 point of sales in department stores across India as of March 31, 2022.

In January, ABFRL acquired a 51% stake in 'Masaba' brand promoted by designer Masaba Gupta for ₹90 crore. In 2021, it had announced the acquisition of a 51% stake in designer brand Sabyasachi. In 2019, the company acquired ethnic apparel and lifestyle retailer Jaypore for ₹110 crore.