Blackstone invests $79m in India's FLF

The private equity firm bought 11.7 million shares in FLF, representing a 5.8% stake, at 466.25 each on July 29, a slight discount to that day’s closing price of INR467. Blackstone’s share purchase comes days after Aion Capital Partners announced that it would pay INR3 billion for newly issued shares in FLF, giving it a 3.2% stake in the company.

The seller is Ryka Commercial Ventures, a holding company controlled by Kishore Biyani, owner of Indian conglomerate Future Group. Ryka will see its holding in FLF drop from 52% to 46% following the transaction, though Biyani will maintain a controlling stake through his other companies. FLF’s other private equity shareholders include L Catterton and PremjiInvest.

FLF owns the Central and Brand Factory retail store chains, which target the premium and discount markets respectively and covered about 6.5 million square feet of floor space across 137 outlets as of March. It also operates 202 exclusive brand stores and owns the national distribution rights for global clothing brands including John Miller, Umbro, and UMM, along with a number of its own clothing lines.

For the year ended March 2019, the company reported INR54 billion in revenue, up from INR43 billion the year before. Over the same period, net profit grew from INR1.1 billion to INR1.5 billion.

Blackstone is investing through its tactical opportunities platform, which focuses on global opportunities that are time-sensitive, complex, and in dislocated markets where risk is considered fundamentally mispriced.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• PIPEs
• India
• The Blackstone Group