Aditya Birla Fashion To Buy 51% In Masaba Gupta's Label In Another Designer Tie-Up

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd. acquired a 51% stake in Masaba Gupta's label, its fourth investment in high-end designer brands as its bets on demand for premium lifestyle collections.

Billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla-controlled company will buy the majority stake in Masaba Lifestyle Pvt. for Rs 90 crore, according to its filing.

The two companies targets to build a business worth Rs 500 crore in the next five years, it said. “This partnership aims to create a young, aspirational and digital-led portfolio play, across the affordable luxury segment in the fashion, beauty and accessory categories.”

The deals fits into the company’s strategy of building its fast-growing beauty, personal care and lifestyle business. Aditya Birla Fashion earlier invested in Tarun Tahiliani's label, acquired majority stake in Sabyasachi and tied up with Shantanu and Nikhil.

“As a new generation of young and digitally native consumers explore their needs within fashion and lifestyle, they actively seek brands that are colourful, vivid and digital,” Ashish Dikshit, managing director at ABFRL, said in the statement "Masaba is a young, effervescent brand with a refreshing and innovative take on every lifestyle category.”

The seven-year-old House of Masaba is engaged in sales and distribution of apparel, non-apparel, beauty and personal care, and accessories.

The revenue for the last three years from the apparel business stood at Rs 16 crore in FY19, Rs 20 crore in FY20 and Rs 14 crore in Covid-hit FY21.

“For FY22, revenue is pegged at Rs 30 crore," Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail said. This, however, doesn't include the turnover of the beauty business.

Designer Deals

In February 2021, the company acquired a 33.5% stake in Tahiliani's luxury couture business for Rs 67 crore. The company and Tahiliani launched a contemporary men’s ethnic wear brand TASVA, 80% owned by the Aditya Birla Group firm.

It set up its first store in Bengaluru in December, and has plans to add 70 more this year across Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore and other cities, the company had said.

Aditya Birla Fashion also bought a 51% stake in the designer label Sabyasachi for Rs 398 crore in January 2021. In 2019, it struck a partnership with designer duo Shantanu and Nikhil.

The company expects to add more than 100 ethnic-wear stores by next year, of which 10-15 will be Shantanu and Nikhil outlets.

Shares of Aditya Birla Fashion were trading nearly 0.4% higher at 2 p.m. compared with a 0.1% decline in Nifty 50.