E-commerce major Flipkart has invested Rs 260 crore in Arvind Youth Brands for a minority stake. Arvind Fashion Limited, a public listed company, had recently transferred its denim brand Flying Machine to a newly formed subsidiary Arvind Youth Brands to facilitate this transaction.
Confirming the development, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Chief Executive Officer, Flipkart Group said, “Through this investment, we look forward to partnering with the team at Arvind Youth Brands to continue to grow the market for its portfolio of products and enhance the strong brand equity that has been built over the last few decades.”
While further details of the minority stake couldn’t be ascertained, AFL’s shares also saw a jump in the stock market after Flipkart’s investment. AFL’s share had witnessed its 52 weeks low on May 20, 2020, at Rs 110 per share, but shot up to Rs 178 today after the announcement of the deal before closing at Rs 170.
The investment is Flipkart’s attempt to strengthen its leadership position in the fashion apparel segment. The Walmart-owned company dominates the fashion space with Myntra, Jabong, and Flipkart itself. Experts estimate that the Flipkart group has over 60% share in the online fashion market.
At present, Arvind Fashion Limited claims to have a network of 1,290 stores which have approx 10,000 multi-brand outlets with over 3,700 points of sales in department stores across India. The company is likely to help Flipkart in ramping up its omnichannel strategy.
Flipkart’s arch-rival Amazon has already invested in Shoppers Stop.
The investment has come at a time when Flipkart and Arvind Fashions’ businesses have been hit hard due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the lockdown period, which lasted almost two months, the revenue of Flipkart was reduced by over 90%.
For Arvind Fashion, the negative impact of the pandemic can be estimated from its FY20’s fourth-quarter revenues and profitability report. As per the stock exchange filing, the company generated a revenue of Rs 710 crore in Q4’20 as compared to Rs 1,169 crore in Q4’19. It also posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 204.33 crore in Q4 FY20 as against a net profit of Rs 19.56 crore in Q4 FY19.
Overall, the company’s revenue was down by almost 16.7% amounting to Rs 3866 crore in FY20 from Rs 4644 crore in the previous fiscal year.
