Reliance Retail Ltd (RRL), the retail arm of Reliance Industries said on Tuesday that it has bought ITC Ltd’s menswear brand John Players.
The acquisition will bolster RRL’s readymade garments and accessories portfolio in the fashion and lifestyle retail space, Reliance told Reuters in an email. Reliance Retail runs retail fashion outlets through Reliance Trends and Ajio.com.
At the same time, both Reliance Retail and ITC did not delve into the financial details of the deal.
As per the report in the Economic Times earlier, RRL procured John Players’ assets which include the brand itself and its distribution rights through 750 stores and 65 exclusive franchise outlets for an estimated value of Rs 150 crore ($21.79 million).
Previously this month, Reuters reported that Reliance planned to expand the number of low-cost Reliance Trends fashion stores across India to 2,500 from 557 over the next five years and assimilate them with its online business.
Reliance plans to further go into a diverse e-commerce and extend into fashion as the conglomerate’s billionaire owner Mukesh Ambani aims to grab a dominant share of Indian consumer spending in a struggle with rivals, particularly Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc’s Flipkart.
Reliance shares climbed 1.6 percent as of 0602 GMT while those of ITC were 0.95 percent lower in Mumbai trading.
