Global Fashion Group (GFG), the multi-banner online retailer supported by Rocket Internet and Kinnevik, has signed agreements for the acquisition of two Brazilian online retailers, Kanui and Tricae, with a total turnover of around €30 million.
Founded in 2011, Kanui is a surf and skate online shop that generated sales of around €20 million last year. It also sells bicycles, outdoor equipment and other lifestyle and sports-related items. Tricae sells children's clothing over the internet.
The two web stores previously belonged to the Latin American Internet Group, which was founded in 2012 by Rocket Internet, one of the major shareholders of GFG, together with a local telecommunications company.
Kanui and Tricae will be integrated with Dafiti, the Latin American e-commerce operation of GFG, which had sales of about €190 million last year. Dafiti is one of several “Zalando clones,” controlled by GFG, that operate in 27 markets outside Europe. The other regional units are La Moda in Russia, Namishi in the Middle East, Jabong in India, and Zalora in Southeast Asia and Australia.
Meanwhile, Luxembourg-based GFG has raised net proceedings of €150 million from a new round of financing. Only some of the funds came from its main shareholders, Rocket Internet and Kinnevik, which have seen their financial stakes slightly diluted to 21.9 percent and 25.0 percent, respectively. The proceeds will be used to develop shared warehousing, marketing and product development between GFG's five regional fashion brands.
The latest fund-raising round has increased GFG's valuation to around €3.1 billion, up from a previous value of €2.7 billion. GFG' shareholders have hinted at its possible public offering at a later stage. Rocket Internet raised around €1.5 billion when it went public last October, at about the same time as Zalando. At the company's annual meeting a few days ago, the Samwer brothers and other Rocket Internet shareholders agreed to look for additional financing of up to €2 billion in order to establish the company as the biggest internet retailing platform outside the U.S. and China.
