UK fashion retailer Superdry on Wednesday said it will sell its licenses and brand assets in South Asia to Reliance Retail for £40 million pounds (Rs 402 crore) through a joint venture.
Superdry, whose fashion line mostly includes sweatshirts, hoodies and jackets, will own 24 per cent of the joint venture while Reliance Retail will have 76 per cent.
Under the agreement, Superdry's brand IP assets in South Asia will be permanently transferred to the new JV.
In a filing to the London Stock Exchange, Superdry plc said it has signed an IP joint venture agreement with Reliance Brands Holding UK Ltd for "the sale of its intellectual property assets, including the SUPERDRY brand and related trademarks in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to the joint venture vehicle".
The UK fashion retailer, which has been grappling with weak orders from wholesale partners cautious on stock levels, said it expects gross cash proceeds of £30.4 million.
RBUK is held by Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) through its subsidiary Reliance Brands Limited — Superdry's exclusive franchise partner in India since 2012.
Reliance will continue to oversee brand operations in the three countries, Superdry said.
RBL is the premium retail arm of RRVL, which operates over 18,000 stores across India offering 50 different luxury fashion brands with a presence in 7,000 towns and a total shopping area of more than 65 million square feet.
Reliance Retail said Superdry's unique fusion of British heritage, American styling and Japanese graphics has carved a niche among fashionable young Indian consumers.
The brand has expanded rapidly to 200 points of sale across 50 cities. Moreover, e-commerce has been driving incremental growth, boosting Superdry's reach to beyond 2,300 cities that made the Indian operations the largest franchisee network of the brand.
“Superdry has come to define urban cool in India for more than a decade. The journey has been rewarding and fun in equal parts due to working with the hugely talented Superdry team and the sense of camaraderie led by Julian (Dunkerton). I look forward with excitement to this new era of our partnership,’’ Darshan Mehta, MD of Reliance Brands, said.