Building an empire: Birla eyes M&As to fill up $1-billion apparel closet

TCNS Clothing Company, a listed entity with a market capitalisation of Rs 3,215 crore, has ethnicwear brands such as W, Aurelia, Wishful, Folksong, and Elleven

In September 2018, Aditya Birla Group decided to sell its struggling grocery retail chain to focus more on apparel retailing. The sale of the chain was six years after Birla acquired Pantaloons, a clothing chain, from Future Group for Rs 1,600 crore.  Since then, Aditya Birla Group has created a sprawling apparel retail business through a series of acquisitions while shutting down its loss-making online retailing arm — Abof.com (All About Fashion) — in 2017.

The apparel retailing flagship — Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail (ABFRL) — over the years has signed a raft of strategic partnerships in the luxury and