Samara Capital in talks to buy Aditya Birla Group's More for Rs 2,500 crore
Samara Capital is in advanced talks to buy Aditya Birla Retail’s (ABRL) supermarket chain More for about Rs 2,500 crore, people with knowledge of the development told .
The private equity firm has almost completed its due diligence of the retailer, the officials added. The fourth-largest supermarket chain in the country after Future Group, Reliance Retail and DMart, ABRL ended the last fiscal with493 More branded supermarkets and 20 hypermarkets, covering more than 2 m sq ft of retail space. “Samara will control operations and Aditya Birla Group will no longer run the company,” one person privy to the deal said.
A spokesperson for Aditya Birla Group declined comment on the talks while officials from Samara Capital did not respond to an email questionnaire seeking comment. ABRL reported a 20% increase in FY17 sales to Rs 4,194 crore, with net loss narrowing to Rs 644 crore. However, the company had debt of about Rs 6,573 crore on its books and financing costs amounted . to Rs 471 crore for the year.
The accumulated debt was mainly due to the acquisition of Trinethra and Fabmall a decade ago, and Jubilant’s Total Super Store two years ago. About a month ago, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and his family converted bonds worth more than Rs 2,800 crore into equity for the group’s food and grocery business. More too has undergone a change in its format, morphing into a low-cost hypermarket model like DMart. Industry analysts say the success of this in Kattupally has encouraged the management to undergo national revamp starting with Noida.