India's Arvind Fashions to sell Sephora retail division to Ambani's Reliance

Bengaluru: Arvind Fashions said on Friday it will sell its beauty brands division, which retails products of LVMH-owned beauty chain Sephora, to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's retail unit Reliance Retail for 990.2 million rupees ($11.89 million).

The deal, which will boost Reliance's portfolio of international brands, comes months after local media reported that Sephora and Reliance Retail had abandoned talks to form a retail partnership for the Indian market.

Reliance launched its own beauty retail platform, Tira, in April to take on the likes of Nykaa and the Tata Group.

The deal was made at an enterprise value of 2.16 billion rupees, Arvind Fashions said in a regulatory filing.

Shares of Arvind Fashions surged 11.5 per cent after the news, trimming some gains to last trade up 7.3 per cent.

The beauty division that hosted Sephora reported a revenue of 3.37 billion rupees in fiscal 2023, or about 7.6 per cent of Arvind Fashion's total revenue.

($1 = 83.2510 Indian rupees)