Reliance Retail acquires a controlling stake in designer Ritu Kumar's company

Reliance Retail has acquired a controlling stake in fashion house Ritu Kumar for an undisclosed amount.
Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd has acquired about 52% stake in Ritika Pvt. Ltd, the holding company of Ritu Kumar, according press release by Reliance Retail on Tuesday.

As part of the deal Reliance Retail has acquired about 35% stake in Ritika Pvt. Ltd held by private equity firm Everstone Capital.

ET had broken the story in June that Reliance Retail is close to a deal with Ritu Kumar. With this deal, Everstone will exit the Indian designer brand that operates about seven dozen physical outlets, ET had reported in June. Everstone had invested about ?100 crore in the New Delhi-based designer retailer to pick the stake in 2014.

Ritu Kumar owns four designer brands including Label, RI, Aarke and Ritu Kumar Home. The five-decade-old company had been in the market for years to raise money to fund expansion. Reliance has been aggressively buying retail brands to shore up its leadership in a market in which it’s largely pitched against Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.