Mumbai: Walmart-owned Flipkart Limited has entered into an agreement to sell 31.25% of its stake in Arvind Fashion’s Arvind Youth Brands, the holding company for the Flying Machine brand, for ₹135 crores, just half of the ₹260 crores the e-commerce platform had invested in 2020. According to an exchange filing by Arvind Fashions, the company will buy back 58 lakh Compulsory Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) of ₹ 100/- each upon closure of the transaction, making Arvind Youth Brands Private Limited (AYBPL) a wholly owned subsidiary of Arvind Fashions.
Flipkart’s investment in Flying Machine came at a time when the brand was seeing increasing popularity with the youth for its fresh designs, with the investment aimed at promoting the brand through Flipkart’s widely popular online platforms. At the same time, Arvind Fashion continued to grow the brand’s offline sales, just like it did for the various international brands it manages.
Over the last three years, the brand has seen its revenues decline from ₹472.38 crore in FY 2022-23 to ₹432.16 crore in FY 2024-25. Though Flipkart’s motive for its divestment hasn’t been given, complete control of this brand will help Arvind Fashion revive the brand as the company competes with other affordable youth brands like Aditya Birla’s OWND!, Reliance Retail’s Azorte and the Tata’s Zudio brand.
Arvind Fashion’s shares were trading at ₹518.05 following the news on December 29 at 10.55 AM.
