NEW DELHI: Fashion retailer Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL) on Tuesday said its board has approved raising Rs 2,195 crore of primary capital from Singapore’s GIC sovereign wealth fund.
GIC will invest Rs 770 crore now towards subscription of equity and warrants, followed by up to Rs 1,425 crore in one or more tranches within 18 months upon exercise of warrants, ABFRL said in a statement. Post the entire investment, GIC will own 7.5% equity stake and Aditya Birla Group will hold 51.9% stake in the company.
ABFRL said it plans to use this capital to accelerate its growth engine built around the strength of its current businesses along with a rapidly evolving play in emerging high-growth business models. This capital infusion will allow the company to accelerate the growth of its platform of strong brands and well-established retail formats in the fast-growing branded apparel market, Ashish Dikshit, MD of ABFRL, said.
Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, said, “Indian Apparel industry 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.” “An investment of this nature serves to underscore ABFRL’s strong position and dynamic growth model,” Birla said.