Worldview | A New Chapter for India’s $165 Billion Tata Group?

🇮🇳 Noel Tata takes indirect control of India’s $165 Billion Tata Group. The billionaire industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata, a former group chairman and then chair emeritus of the firm, died last week aged 86. Operating in sectors ranging from software and steel to travel and telecoms, the sprawling firm was founded in 1868 as a trading company and later as a textile mill by Ratan’s great grandfather Jamsetji Tata. Today, the firm is still a major player in India’s fashion sector, with holdings that include luxury and beauty e-commerce platform Tata Cliq, leather and footwear exporter Tata International, watches and jewellery firm Titan Company (whose portfolio includes its namesake brand, Tanishq, Zoya, Mia and CaratLane), and subsidiary Trent Limited (whose interests include joint venture partnerships with international brands like Zara), Westside department store chain, fashion brands Zudio, Samoh and Utsa and beauty brand Misbu. Speculation about the firm’s succession plan mounted following Ratan’s death until his half-brother Noel Tata, was appointed on Friday as chairman of Tata Trusts, which has a 66% ownership of Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of all Tata Group companies. Noel’s children Leah, Maya, and Neville Tata also hold managerial roles in various Tata companies. Tata Sons has been led by chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran since 2017. [Business Standard, BBC, FT, Reuters, Mint]

🇮🇳 International finalists awarded R-Elan award at Lakme Fashion Week. The latest edition fashion week, hosted by cosmetics giant and title sponsor Lakme, the Fashion Design Council of India and Reliance Brands, was held from Oct. 9 to 13 in New Delhi. International finalists of the R-Elan Circular Design Challenge, presented their designs on a day dedicated to sustainability, including Wenyan Xu & Meng Wang (Saltless), Tsang Fan Yu, Silvia Acién (Acien), Gautam Malik (Jaggery), Ritwik Khanna (RKive City) and Chandini Batra (A Blunt Story). The main fashion week showcase, featured Indian labels Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal, Payal Singhal, Samant Chauhan, Dhruv Kapoor, Aneeth Arora’s label Pero and Abraham and Thakore among others. [Arnika Thakur for BoF]

🇨🇳 Chinese down apparel giant Bosideng invests in Moose Knuckles. The Shanghai-based puffer jacket and padded down brand founded in 1976 by Gao Dekang with over 3000 stores worldwide (mostly in China) has made a minority investment in the Canadian luxury outerwear brand founded by Ayal Twik and Noah Stern in 2009. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but private equity firm Cathay Capital, which acquired a stake in Moose Knuckles in 2019, remains its majority investor. “Our collaboration with Bosideng will be a catalyst for our growth in Asia,” said Moose Knuckles executive chairman Victor Luis. [BoF]

🇺🇿 Lagardère Group launches print edition of Elle Uzbekistan magazine. The French publisher has appointed Gemina Publishing, led by Ukraine-born CEO Oleg Drobot, as the local licensing partner, and Tashkent-based media veteran Polina Agliamova as editor-in-chief of the title. The inaugural print edition, available in both the Uzbek and Russian languages, was released last month and the website was launched last June. The magazine’s 50th edition worldwide, Elle Uzbekistan strengthens the media brand’s position in the Central Asia region where it has operated a Kazakhstan edition since 2015, currently under a license agreement with Almaty-based Partners Media Group, led by editor-in-chief Dana Lee. [BoF Inbox]

🇸🇬 Mulberry’s Singapore owner rejects $144 million bid from Frasers Group. Challice, a firm controlled by Singaporean entrepreneur Christina Ong and her Malaysian husband Ong Beng Seng (the latter was recently charged in a graft scandal), called on the UK-based Mike Ashley-owned company to ditch plans to take over the struggling British luxury brand. Challice, which owns 56% of Mulberry and gives it the power to block any bid, rejected the increased £111 million ($144.9 million) bid after Frasers Group, which already owns 37 percent of Mulberry, increased its offer after an earlier £83 million bid was rejected earlier this month. [BoF]

🇮🇳 Indian jewellery retailer Bluestone narrows annual losses by 15%. Operating revenue increased by 64% to 1,265.8 crore rupees ($150.5 million) while losses reached 142.2 crore ($16.9 million) in the year ended March 2024. Founded in 2011 by Gaurav Singh Kushwaha and Vidya Nataraj, the company had raised over $113 million by January 2024 from investors including Accel, Kalaari Capital and Iron Pillar. In August, it closed a 900-crore rupee ($107 million) pre-IPO financing round from Peak XV Partners, Prosus, Steadview Capital, Think Investments and Pratithi Investments. [Economic Times]

🇨🇳 China’s Xiaohongshu reaches $1 billion in quarterly sales. The Shanghai-based picture and video sharing app, known as China’s answer to Instagram, surged in the first quarter of 2024, generating $200 million in net profit on sales, on the back of advertising from retailers targeting mostly female Gen Z consumers. Founded in 2013 by Miranda Qu and Charlwin Mao, the app has shopping and livestream commerce features that have attracted major fashion and beauty brands. In July, it attracted investment from DST Global, valuing the social media platform at $17 billion. [Financial Times]

🇸🇬 Singapore-based e-tailer Lazada courts global luxury brands. Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group’s multi-category e-commerce platform operating in Southeast Asian markets Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines is targeting top European fashion brands to boost its luxury segment through its LazMall Luxury sub-platform in a bid to achieve $100 billion in e-commerce volume by 2030. Executives met last week with more than a hundred Italian brands including Armani, Dolce & Gabbana & Ferragamo, according to Lazada CBO Jason Chen. [BoF]

🇮🇳 India’s Good Glamm Group completes buyout of Sirona. The Mumbai-based beauty group has completed the acquisition of the feminine hygiene brand founded by Deep Bajaj and Mohit Bajaj for 450 crore rupees ($53.5 million) in an all-cash deal. The content-to-commerce unicorn that began as DTC makeup brand MyGlamm before acquiring a stable of beauty, personal care and media brands had announced the purchase of a partial stake in Sirona for 100 crore rupees in 2022 before the deal attracted legal cases which Bajaj says have since been withdrawn. [Economic Times]

🇿🇼 Garment factory closures strain Zimbabwe’s trade unions. “We commend the resilience of trade unions in Zimbabwe’s textile and garment industry who are organising under tough conditions amid…economic crises,” said Paule France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for sub-Saharan Africa. Joseph Tanyanyiwa, National Union of the Clothing Industry general secretary, said that the union continues “to engage the government…on the revival of the…industry.” [Fibre2Fashion]

🇨🇳 Zhuanzhuan and Hongbulin merger could ‘transform’ China’s used luxury market. According to Jing Daily’s head of data Avery Booker, the September acquisition of Hongbulin (also known by its English name Plum) by Zhuanzhuan, a platform focused on used electronics, could “transform China’s secondhand luxury market by improving authentication capabilities and addressing rising demand for affordable high-end goods.” [Jing Daily]

🇮🇳 Kalyan Jewellers posts 39% revenue growth in India operations in Q2. The Thrissur-based company whose portfolio includes its namesake brand and digital-first brand Candere reported the results for the second quarter of the 2024-25 financial year. The jewellery retailer which operates more than 250 showrooms globally reported year over year revenue growth of 24 percent in the Middle East during the same period. [Economic Times]

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Iguatemi set to invest about $42 million in Brasilia mall. The upmarket mall group, which operates over a dozen properties across the country that house both domestica and international brands. has revealed that it plans to invest 236 million reais in its shopping centre in the Lago Norte district of the Brazilian capital. The mall will increase in size by around 50% and add 90 stores, bringing its total area to 50,100 square metres. [BoF Inbox]

🇯🇵 Japan’s Fast Retailing targets higher sales from western markets. The parent company of Uniqlo has reported record annual revenue of 3.1 trillion yen ($20.8 billion) for the fiscal year ended August, driven by strong demand for its main brand in North America and Europe, despite a sales dip in China. That has given the company the confidence to target an operating profit of 530 billion yen in the current fiscal year, surpassing analysts’ estimates. [BoF]

🇨🇳 Shein’s UK sales hit $2 billion ahead of possible London listing. The China-founded, Singapore-based ultra-fast fashion e-tailer, saw its British revenue rise 38 percent in 2023 from a year earlier. The company is awaiting regulatory approval in China and the UK to proceed with an IPO that could value Shein at about £50 billion, according to Bloomberg. [BoF]

🇳🇬 Nigeria inaugurates the Enugu State Garment and Fashion Hub. The west African nation’s vice president Kashim Shettima noted that the hub would serve to as a “stepping stone” to provide “an exchange in support of manufacturing in Enugu State, boosting production capacity and in enabling economy of scale,” citing the hub’s capacity to create about 48,000 jobs. [Daily Trust Nigeria, Fibre2Fashion]

🇮🇳 Clothing Manufacturers Association of India appoints new president. The CMAI has tapped apparel industry veteran Santosh Katariya to lead the organisation for the 2024-2026 term, succeeding Rajesh Masand. Katariya is the managing director of Peppermint Clothing Pvt Ltd in Pune. [Indian Textile Magazine]