Superdry PLC (LSE:SDRY) is up more than 30% in trading on Wednesday after announcing it sold its intellectual property (IP) for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to Reliance Brands for £40 million.
A joint venture is being created through the licensing deal, with Reliance Brands UK, set to own 76% of the newly created company, while Superdry takes up a 24% holding, having invested £9.6 million.
But who is Reliance Brands and what do they do?
Established in 2007, Reliance Brands was created as an offshoot of Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of India’s richest company, Reliance Industries, a conglomerate with fingers in the energy, oil, gas, mass media, telecom, textiles and retail pies.
Notably, Reliance Industries’ boss is Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest individual for more than a decade with an estimated net worth of over US$91 billion.
Mukesh Ambani Source: Siasat
“Reliance Brands Limited was born out of the realisation that the new age consumer in India has far more international exposure, brand awareness, lifestyle aspirations and spending power than ever before,” the company explained on its website.
Since most international brands are now accessible by the click of a mouse, Reliance Retail decided to find a way to purchase some of the largest of these names.
Buying the Indian/ South Asian IP rights for over 50 international brands, some of which have their largest markets in the country, the licensing group has set its sights on the luxury, bridge-to-luxury, high premium and high-street industries.
Some of Reliance Brand’s investments include:
- Armani Exchange
- Burberry
- Versace
- Steve Madden
- Giorgio Armani
- Hugo Boss
- Hamleys
- Diesel
- Emporio Armani
Although Wednesday's news is big for Superdry and has helped give the mostly bearish stock some momentum, Reliance Brands isn’t a new name for the clothing manufacturer.
Back in 2013, the group worked alongside Reliance to start opening stores in India, bringing it to several of the country’s most popular cities.
Superdry opened its 52nd Store in India - Coimbatore. pic.twitter.com/wOhDTTMj21
— Kishore Chandran???????? (@tweetKishorec) April 2, 2022
Fast forward to today and Superdry stores can be found all across India, with ten sites in Mumbai alone.
Injecting much-needed funds into the Superdry business, the deal has been welcomed by investors and analysts such as Victoria Scholar at Interactive Investor, who is hopeful the plans will rejuvenate a struggling brand.