L Capital exits Fabindia, sells stake to PremjiInvest, others

By Debjyoti Roy

  • 02 Nov 2016
Fabindia | Credit: Facebook

L Capital, a private equity firm backed by global luxury conglomerate LVMH group, has exited its investment in ethnic retailer Fabindia, a person privy to the development told VCCircle.

The investment firm has sold its 16% stake in Fabindia Overseas Pvt. Ltd to Hasham Investment and Trading Co. Pvt. Ltd, an affiliate of Wipro chairman Azim Premji's private investment arm PremjiInvest, and two unnamed individuals.

The company’s promoters, according to the person cited above, also bought back 4% stake held by L Capital in Fabindia International Pte Ltd.

The deal is valued at Rs 730 crore ($109 million), the person said. However, he declined to share details on the individual investments.

L Capital had bought the 8% stake in Fabindia in 2012 from Wolfensohn Capital Partners for around Rs 150 crore, valuing the company at Rs 1,875 crore at the time. 

Email queries sent to L Capital, Fabindia and Hasham Investment did not elicit a response till the time of publishing this report.

This was L Capital’s third reported exit from India. Last year. It had exited its three-year-old investment in PVR Ltd, the country's largest multiplex chain operator. PVR was its first investment outside the apparel business in India and first private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal.

It also sold its entire stake in PVR Leisure, the mall entertainment and gaming arena arm of PVR last year. 

Besides, it counts apparel retailer Genesis Luxury among its Indian portfolio firms. The PE firm had not made any fresh investments in the country since 2012, as per VCCEdge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle.

In June, private equity giant Blackstone sold just under 10% stake in garment exporter Gokaldas Exports Ltd or one-sixth of its total holding in the firm as it was looking to gradually liquidate one of its loss-making investments in India.

SP Apparels Ltd, the maker of menswear under the Crocodile brand, also went for a public listing in August.

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