Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd, a unit of the Aditya Birla Group, will acquire Jaypore E-Commerce Pvt. Ltd, which runs an eponymous ethnic items' marketplace.
In a filing with stock exchanges, Aditya Birla Fashion said that it would acquire 100% of Jaypore for an enterprise value of Rs 110 crore ($15.8 million at current exchange rate), subject to closing adjustments.
The filing comes a little more than two months after VCCircle first reported that Jaypore was in talks to sell a majority stake to a strategic buyer.
The deal is expected to close within 30 to 45 days, Aditya Birla Fashion said. In the statement, Aditya Birla Fashion managing director Ashish Dikshit said the acquisition was a strategic addition to the portfolio, adding that it would give the firm a strong presence in the ethnic products segment.
“Jaypore is a brand with strong equity and with a differentiated offering of products based on Indian crafts,” he said.
Shares of Aditya Birla Fashion were trading 0.78% up at around Rs 220 at the time of writing this report.
Founded in 2012 by Puneet Chawla, Shilpa Sharma and Aarti Jesrani, Jaypore sells items such as ethnic jewellery, apparel, accessories and home décor items on its platforms. The company, which has catered to customers from over 60 countries, also offers contemporary apparel under its own private label. Its competitors include the Sequoia Capital- and Lightspeed Venture Partners-backed Craftsvilla.
In early 2016, Jaypore raised $5 million (around Rs 34 crore) in its first institutional funding round from social-impact investment firm Aavishkaar. According to VCCEdge, the database platform of Mosaic Digital, the company's high net-worth individual investors include TableHero founder Deap Ubhi, True North partner Haresh Chawla and former Info Edge (India) Ltd executive Vivek Khare.
Aditya Birla Fashion, which operates brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England, has a network of over 2,700 stores across around 750 cities in the country. The listed company also operates fashion brand Pantaloons.
To discuss the emerging opportunities and challenges in dealmaking, Mosaic Digital, the corporate banner behind VCCircle.com, is organising its next edition of M&A Summit on 26 June in Mumbai.
