Hamleys, the world's oldest toy retailer has been sold to the company controlled by Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani.
Reliance Brands, a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, has acquired 100 percent of the shares of Hamleys Global Holdings, the owner of British toy store chain Hamleys, from Hong Kong-listed Chinese firm C Banner International Holdings, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
Reliance Industries is controlled by chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani, who owns a 44.7 percent stake in the company. According to Forbes, Ambani's (pictured below) net worth as of March 2019 is $50 billion. While the statement did not specify the purchase price, Bloomberg reported it to be almost 68 million pounds ($88.5 billion).
(Mukesh Ambani, CEO, Reliance Industries, Image: CC BY-SA 2.0)
«The worldwide acquisition of the iconic Hamleys brand and business places Reliance into the frontline of global retail,» Darshan Metta, CEO of Reliance Brands, said.
Battle for India's Retail Market
Reliance operates the Hamleys franchise in India, which has 88 stores. The purchase would give the company control of another 176 stores in 18 countries, including its 54,000-square-foot flagship store on London's Regent Street – the oldest and largest toy shop in the world.
Ambani is competing with Amazon and Walmart for dominance of India's online retail market, which Morgan Stanley estimates to be worth $200 billion in the next decade.
Among other ventures in India, Reliance is putting together its own telecom network, which would complement the digital economy ecosystem it is building that includes retail, entertainment, education and financial services.
Oldest Toy Shop
Hamleys was founded by William Hamley as «Noahs Ark» in London 1760, and moved to its Regent Street site in 1881, now a tourist attraction in the city.
It has struggled with profitably in recent years, and has changed hands several times in the past decade. In 2015 was sold by a French company to C Banner International for 100 million pounds.
