PremjiInvest eyes stake in Wildcraft
MUMBAI: PremjiInvest, the family investment arm of Wipro chairman and billionaire Azim Premji, is in talks to acquire a 10-15% stake in Wildcraft India Pvt Ltd, a Bengaluru-based adventure equipment and outdoor gear firm, said two people familiar with the development.
For the minority stake, PremjiInvest will invest about $15 million (₹100 crore), one of them said on condition of anonymity.
“In this latest round of investment, the company is valued at $150 million, and this is primary fund-raising, and no existing investor will make part-exits,” the person added.
Started in 1992 by Dinesh KS, Wildcraft offers shoes, jackets, rucksacks, sleeping bags, tents and hiking accessories. It has two manufacturing plants—in Bengaluru and Himachal Pradesh— and employs around 2,500 people. It has over 160 stores in 65 cities and towns, and also exports its wares.
The firm expects to earn ₹550600 crore in revenue in 2017-18, up from around ₹400 crore in the current financial year, said a Mint report in March. “We have a fouryear target now of being at about ₹1,000 crore and the mix would be in the range of 50:50 or 60:40 between gear and apparel-footwear,” said co-founder Siddharth Sood in the report.
Roughly 70% of Wildcraft’s product portfolio today is made up of outdoor gear, 20% is clothing and 10% is footwear.
In 2013, Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital invested $11 million (₹70 crore) in Wildcraft to acquire a 20% stake.
Emails seeking comments from Wildcraft India did not elicit any response while Rajesh Ramaiah, chief financial officer at PremjiInvest, replied saying, “We do not make any comments to media regarding our deals or portfolio companies.”
VIP Industries is the market leader in the Indian bags and luggage segment, followed by Samsonite, according to data from Euromonitor.