Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail posts Rs 109 cr loss for Q4

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL), formerly known as Pantaloons Fashion, today reported a net loss of Rs 109.82 crore on standalone basis for the January-March quarter of 2015-16 against a loss of Rs 63.78 crore in the same period last year.
Besides, the company's board today approved acquisition of online and offline rights of global brand Forever 21 for the Indian market.
ABFRL reported net sales of Rs 1,430.99 crore during the quarter under review against net sales of Rs 450.51 crore in the same quarter of previous fiscal.
Meanwhile, the company said that its results are not comparable as Aditya Birla Nuvo and of another group firm Madura Garments Lifestyle Retail Ltd were merged into listed firm Pantaloons Fashion.

"The figure of the quarter ended March 31, 2016 and December 31, 2015 and nine months ended December 31, 2015 and year ended March 31, 2016 include figures of the demerged undertakings which has been transferred to the company from April 1, 2015 and therefor to that extent are not comparable with those of the previous fiscal," said ABFRL.
For 2015-16, ABFRL has a standalone net loss of Rs 104.14 crore. It had a net loss of Rs 228.14 crore in the previous fiscal.

Its net sales were at Rs 6,017.80 crore in 2015-16 against Rs 1,816.88 crore in 2014-15.

In a separate filing, ABFRL informed: "The board of directors of the company, at its meeting held today has in principal approved a proposal to enter into a binding MoU with Forever 21 to acquire its exclusive online and offline rights of the global brand Forever 21 for the Indian market and its existing store network in India from the current franchise Diana Retail Pvt Ltd".
However, it also added: "The proposed acquisition is subject to necessary statutory approvals from and signing of definitive agreements".
Shares of the company today settled at Rs 146.65 at BSE, up 0.17 per cent from previous close.