Aditya Birla Fashion Surges On Rs 1,500 Crore Investment From Flipkart

Shares of Aditya Birla Fashion And Retail rose as much as 6.58 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 163.50 on the BSE after the company informed exchanges that Walmart Inc's Flipkart will buy a 7.8 per cent stake in the company for Rs 1,500 crore. Flipkart will buy 7.32 crore equity shares at Rs 205 per share aggregating to Rs 1,500 crore, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail said in a stock exchange filing.

The investment comes at a time when Amazon.com Inc, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries and Flipkart are in a race to gain market share in the country's fast-growing online market for food and groceries.

"Fashion retail in India is set for robust long-term growth due to strong fundamentals of a large and growing middle class, favorable demographics, rising disposable incomes and aspiration for brands. Rapid growth of technology infrastructure will further accelerate this process," Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman Aditya Birla Group said in a statement.