Several local e-commerce companies have entered talks to acquire Jabong, the India-based fashion e-commerce platform founded by e-commerce incubator and holding group Rocket Internet, LiveMint reported yesterday.
Jabong sells a range of footwear, apparel, jewellery and fashion accessories online. Although it has maintained high sales, it has failed to turn that revenue into profit and its investors are said to be unwilling to keep pumping in money.
Snapdeal, Flipkart, retail conglomerate Future Group and Abof.com, the online fashion retailer owned by retail group Aditya Birla, are among the interested bidders, people aware of the development told LiveMint.
E-commerce company Alibaba and Flipkart subsidiary Myntra are also involved, according to the Economic Times, which cited people with knowledge of the matter.
Abof and Snapdeal are the favourites, sources told LiveMint. The prospective price for Jabong was reported as between $250m and $300m by ET, and between $100m and $150m by LiveMint, which added the final price could be as low as $75m.
Jabong was launched in 2012 and incorporated into Global Fashion Group (GFG), the fashion e-commerce-focused partnership formed by Rocket Internet and investment firm Kinnevik, in September 2014.
UK-based development finance provider CDC Group invested $27m in Jabong in 2014 before GFG injected $20m in March this year.
E-commerce firm Amazon had reportedly entered talks over an acquisition in late 2014 in a deal that would have valued Jabong at $1.1bn to $1.2bn. Aditya Birla and online payment platform Paytm were said to be in talks for a $500m to $800m purchase in September 2015.