Aditya Birla Fashion buys 51% stake in Masaba Label for ₹90 crore

Through the investment in the ‘Masaba’ brand, ABFRL will foray into the branded beauty and personal care segment as well as strengthen its game in fashion for young and digitally rooted consumers, the company said in a filing to the exchanges. The duo will create a young, ambitious and digitally led portfolio in the affordable luxury segment in the fashion, beauty and accessory categories.

The brand is targeting to achieve an annual revenue of approx. 500 crore in the next five years. In FY21—Masaba Lifestyle Pvt Ltd reported revenue of 14 crores. It is expected to be operational in the current financial year 30 crore in revenue, as per information available in the filings of ABFRL. House of Masaba was established in 2009 – engaged in the sale and distribution of Apparel, Non-Apparel, Beauty & Personal Care & Accessories. The bridge-to-luxury brand offers pret, Indian and Indo-Western attire.

Ashish Dixit, Managing Director, ABFRL said that new age buyers and digitally native consumers are actively looking for brands that are colourful, vivid and digital.

The association for ABFRL is “an important step in building a presence in the fast growing beauty and personal care segment,” said Dixit. “This fits well with our overall strategy of partnering with India’s top designers to create an exclusive and aspirational portfolio. There are homegrown brands in the fashion and lifestyle categories.”

Gupta said that House of Masaba will strengthen as the 360 ​​degree global lifestyle brand of the future. He added, “House of Masaba has already established a strong foothold amongst the youth with a strong digital-first strategy and the tie-up with ABRFL will cement this position, making the brand future ready.”

Brand Masaba will be scaled up largely through the Digital Direct to Consumer (D2C) channel, which spans from apparel, accessories, beauty and other lifestyle products to complete lifestyle offerings.

The move follows a series of investments led by two of the largest fashion conglomerates in the country – Reliance Brands Limited (RBL) and ABFRL. Over the past two years- the duo has made majority investments in popular domestic Indian designers including Shantanu & Nikhil, Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra, Anamika Khanna. These investments will allow both companies to work with designers and provide them with a greater distribution load, create more bridge-to-luxury collections and expand their customer base.

Wazir Advisors acted as the sole advisor on the transaction.

The ABFRL part of the Aditya Birla Group has a network of 3,264 stores in approximately 26,841 multi-brand outlets, with over 7,094 points of sale in department stores across India. Its portfolio of brands includes brands such as Forever 21, American Eagle, Ralph Lauren, Hackett London, Ted Baker and Fred Perry as well as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England, Pantaloons.