Reliance Retail Ventures has delayed the long stop for Future Group deal by another six months, after the deal completion was delayed due to a court battle with Amazon.

As per Economic Times, will buy the retail assets of Future Group on a slump sale basis for about Rs 25,000 crore, reports Economic Times.

Amazon, which owns a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons a Future Group holding company, has objected to the deal and approached the arbitration court in Singapore, which said it should be suspended pending a final decision. Since the past few months, the transaction is under dispute in the Delhi High Court and the matter is also listed in the Supreme Court and scheduled for hearing on April 27.

Since the past three months, Reliance Retail has started using Future Group’s supply chain unit for its logistics and warehousing needs in the food, groceries and fashion retail businesses, even as both firms await the final approvals for their deal for retail assets from NCLT

The new hybrid edition of Techtextil India will be held from September 01-03, 2021 in Mumbai.

As per Textile Network, the exhibition will connect textile players from across the globe through its multimodal platform. The combination of physical and digital platforms will enable exhibitors to connect with wider audiences, increase their market presence and expand their business alliances significantly.

The physical fair will facilitate face-to-face interaction under strict observance of safety protocols while the digital platform will help exhibitors increase their brand exposure and interact with potential buyers from across the globe via features such as live streaming, video calls, live chats and more. Live product demonstration on dual platforms will further enable exhibitors to showcase their products and new emerging technologies to a vast array of business attendees.

Currently the Indian technical textile industry is pegged at $19 billion and accounts to approximately 13 percent of India’s total textile and apparel market. With new demands arising in the segment, the hybrid edition of Techtextil India 2021 will enable technical textile players to engage with businesses beyond geographical constraints, forge new alliances and gain specialized insights to strategically equip themselves for the new normal.

FirstCry has received $315 million investment from a consortium of private equity investors - TPG, ChrysCapital and Premji Invest - valuing the omnichannel children’s retailer at around $1.9-$2.1 billion.

As per Economic Times, the company will target a public market listing in 18-24 months. The deal involves a $300 million secondary transaction.

There is also a small primary component of about $13 million from Premji Invest, regulatory filings showed. The early investors in the SoftBank-backed company, such as Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners), Vertex Partners and MegaDelta Capital Advisors have sold their entire stakes as part of the latest transaction.

The current transaction has doubled the company’s valuation in less than 24 months — SoftBank Vision Fund had picked up 40 per cent in FirstCry in 2019, valuing it at about $1.1 billion. The omnichannel retailer dedicated to baby and mother care products received $400 million in fresh equity from the Masayoshi Son-led fund as part of its Series E round.

This round helps the company consolidate its investor base ahead of the IPO that it plans over the next 18-24 months.

Founded in September 2010, FirstCry acquired BabyOye from Mahindra Retail in an all-stock deal worth Rs 362 crore ($50 million) in 2015. Its other investors include Mahindra Group, Valiant Capital, Ratan Tata and Kris Gopalakrishnan.

In the financial year 2020, the Pune-based company’s revenue rose 68 per cent to Rs 897 crore, helping it cut net losses by 83 per cent to Rs 191 crore.

The Union Government has hiked the minimum sale price (MSP) of cottonseed by 5 per cent to Rs767 for a packet of 450 gm of Bollgard-II seed. The price of Bollgard-I is put at Rs635/packet.

As per A SRTEPC report, the trade sells about 5-5.5 crore packets (of 450 gm every) of cottonseed each year. The price hike has evoked blended response from the trade and farmers. While the seed trade has welcomed the transfer, farmers stated it will additional enhance value of production for them.

Rasi Seeds, Kaveri Seed and Nuziveedu Seeds, which have an combination share of 26 million packets , have appreciated the price hike while Vijoo Krishnan, Joint Secretary of the All-India KisanSabha, condemned it.

Prabhakara Rao, President, National Seed Association of India said, they had asked the price to be hiked to Rs810. But the Government increased it by only 5 per cent.

The affiliation represents the seed firms that take the Bollgard-II know-how from Monsanto, via its Indian three way partnership Mahyco Monsanto, to equip their hybrids with means to guard the crops from pink bollworm.

As per a recent study of 75 CRISIL-rated spinners, improved yarn prices due to a sharp rebound in demand in the second half of this fiscal will help Indian yarn firms maintain their operating profitability at nearly 10 per cent this fiscal, despite the pandemic effects.

A report by SRTEPC informs prices of polyester yarn and its key input, purified terephthalic acid (PTA), fell after the onset of the pandemic. But those rebounded between September 2020 and January 2021, with the price of yarn rising faster than PTA, thus aiding profitability

On the other side, prices of viscose yarn and its raw material input have remained largely steady, supporting spreads. Although some softening in the polyester spreads is expected over the next two quarters, it is still likely to remain higher than that in the corresponding periods of last fiscal as the tide of demand continually rises. This is likely to support operating profitability next fiscal as well.

Overall, the industry is expected see a contraction in volume to 5.5 million tonne this fiscal from 6 million tonne last fiscal. Spinners are expected to mitigate this impact by tightening their working capital cycles, with faster collections and better inventory management.

Global sports brand Puma has signed a three-year partnership with Indian Premier League (IPL) team franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). As per a Live Mint report, Puma will be the official kit partner of the team from the upcoming 14th edition of the tournament, scheduled to start from April 09.

It also makes Puma the only global sports brand to be associated with IPL 2021. Puma already has an on-going association with RCB team captain, Virat Kohli. Earlier, it had sponsored IPL teams like Rajasthan Royals, Deccan Chargers (dissolved in 2012) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) during the initial years of T20 league. It is now returning to IPL after almost a decade.

Puma will have exclusive retailing rights to RCB’s take down and replica jerseys, adding pan-India merchandise reach for the franchise across retail and e-commerce channels. The collection, which will be launched on 1 April, will also include a fanwear range of polo tees, shorts, pants, flip-flops and caps.

RCB merchandise will be available at all Puma stores, on puma.com, RCB website, mobile app and the RCB Bar & Café from the first week of April. Puma will also launch advertising campaigns across media platforms.

The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil), Employers Federation of Southern India (EFSI), Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) and The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) jointly organized a National Seminar on “Eradication of Child Labour” on a virtual platform on March 30, 2021.

Stakeholders across the country from the textile value chain attended the seminar.

The seminar was inaugurated by Manoj kumar Patodia, Chairman, Texprocil who highlighted the need for eradicating child labour employment, the actions being taken by US DoL, the magnitude of sensitivity and the need for not only de-listing cotton seeds, cotton, thread / yarn from the list, but also the need for social accountability and the need for taking care of children.

Dr. Siddhartha Rajagopal, Executive Director, Texprocil highlighted the importance of addressing the child labour issue and procedures for de-listing the goods from US Trafficking Victims Protection Re-organization Act (TVPR) list.

He also briefed the steps to be initiated by textile export promotion councils and industry Associations in the preparation of dossiers by engaging third party agency study, collection of data from the Department of Labour, collection of information from NGOs, adopting code of conduct and strictly adhering to labour laws to eradicate child labour, etc.

Rana Alok Singh, Regional Director, South Asia, ETI briefed about the role played by ETI in social accountability and social auditing and also gave various inputs for eradicating child labour.

Mr. K. Varadan, Chief Consultation Officer, M/s. Aparajitha Corporate Services (P) Limited and State Committee Member of EFSI, deliberated on legal provisions against employment of child labour and employment of adolescent labour especially in the textile industry.

Dr. K. Selvaraju, Secretary General, SIMA moderated the session and briefed about the labour employment code and conduct recommended by SIMA and also the role played by The British Standards Institution in getting the star rating.

He stated that the Code will facilitate any textile manufacturing unit to protect itself from any criticism from the NGOs and also other stakeholders. SIMA has established a Sustainability Cell that helps textile mills for auditing and certificate of employment code, apart from assisting the mills in compliance.

SIMA is also having continuous dialogues with various stakeholders and for eradication of child labor. He also informed that SIMA has developed a draft Code on the eradication of child labor for the employer’s compliance.

On March 28, a Hyderabad district consumer forum ordered clothing retailer Brand Factory to pay over Rs 15,000 ($206) to a consumer named S Umesh Kumar for wrongfully charging goods and services tax on a discounted item and charging for a branded carry bag. Kumar purchased a pair of jeans at Brand Factory at a 40 per cent discount. However, he was charged additional GST on top of the discounted price when the original price was GST inclusive. Kumar was also charged Rs 10 on a branded carry bag, which he stated he was only informed of at the checkout.

Lately, many consumers have complained about being charged for branded carry bags while businesses have been accused of charging incorrect GST on discounted items. Other brands which have faced similar fines include footwear brand Bata India which was fined in numerous states for charging for branded carry bags in 2019.

Traders’ bodies, including the Confederation of All India Traders, have criticized GST regulations for being unclear. CAIT recently urged the government to make the GST regulations easier for traders.

Nearly 15 fashion companies, including high-end brands, have been unable to meet their environmental, sustainability, and social targets of the Paris climate agreement and US Sustainable Development Goals, says a new report by The Business of Fashion.

A report by Economic Times reveals, the fashion publication rated companies out of 100 in their attempt towards meeting the 16 targets listed in the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement on emissions, waste, workers' rights, water, and materials.

Twelve sustainability experts advised the online publication on the methodology of the report. The companies were also ranked on their transparency and the amount of information available about a company's practices.

According to the report, the companies were more interested in disclosing information on their targets than concrete actions towards fulfilling them.

Luxury goods company, Kering, topped the list with 49 points, while sports equipment company Under Armor ranked the lowest with nine points. The average score was 36 points.

Kering and Nike performed well on transparency, while PVH Corp, Levi Strauss, and VF Corp ranked highest in their efforts to reduce emissions.

Luxury brands like Hermès, LVMH and Richemont scored lower than high street fashion companies H&M, Inditex, Gap and Levi Strauss in all the six categories - emissions, waste, workers' rights, materials and transparency.

Retail companies, including Fast Retailing, Richmount, also ranked the lowest in all categories along with Under Armour, except it scored well in workers' rights.

According to the report, companies, on average, performed the worst on waste and workers' rights.