India’s Ambani-owned Reliance Industries acquires amanté from MAS Holdings

Mergers & Acquisition

India’s Ambani-owned Reliance Industries acquires amanté from MAS Holdings

Sri Lanka’s MAS Holdings yesterday announced that one of its subsidiaries, MAS Brands, which owns and operates the retail lingerie business under the brand amanté, was acquired by Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, a subsidiary of India’s Ambani-owned Reliance Industries. The press release issued by MAS Holdings did not provide any numbers with regard to the sale. The amanté business, which was established by MAS in 2007/8, engages in the retail and wholesale distribution of premium lingerie brands amanté, Ultimo and everydé by amanté. The company sells its product through its own stores and multi-brand outlets, as well as through its e-commerce channels across India and SriLanka. In 2018, MAS Holdings completed an assignment with a leading global consultancy to develop a long-term strategic plan for the conglomerate, which identified areas of growth based on its core competencies. Furthermore, the strategy prescribed that MAS source strategic partners for businesses outside of MAS’ core competency. The divestiture of amanté was an outcome of this plan, with MAS intent on finding the right partner to invest in the business enabling it to grow. This is a significant foreign investment in a Sri Lankan-owned lingerie business by a retail giant, which in turn, is owned by one of India’s leading and diversified conglomerates, Reliance Industries. Reliance Retail will continue to invest and develop the business both in India and Sri Lanka. A transaction of this nature and the ability to attract the largest retailer in India during these times of uncertainty is a testament to the strength of the business that MAS and the management team of amanté have built over the past decade. “The acquisition by Reliance ensured that amanté would benefit from Reliance’s scale and retail expertise, and that the brand we created and our employees in India and Sri Lanka will continue to benefit from being a part of a well-established retail company” stated Mahesh Amalean, Chairman MAS Holdings. “This was a business MAS built from the ground up, leveraging on years of expertise in the lingerie business, so we are excited to see it transition to new shareholders and a parent organisation that, without doubt, will enable the brand and the company to thrive,” added MAS Co-Founder Ajay Amalean, who was directly responsible for overseeing the amanté business from its inception. Isha Ambani, Director, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited said, “At Reliance, we pride ourselves in offering the best and enhancing choices to our customers and we are proud to bring high quality and design led products of ‘amante’. MAS is a well-recognised product innovator and manufacturer for some of the iconic global brands in this segment, the partnership and collaboration we build together with them will offer Indian customers world-class product quality and greater choices in this segment.” “The teams at MAS Brands are excited at the new opportunities and prospects that this acquisition brings about, and are anticipating the strategic advantages and new learning that will come from working as part of a retail giant such as Reliance,” said Vivek Mehta, the CEO of MAS Brands.