Shares of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) increased more than 3 percent on Thursday on announcement that the brand licensing arm of the Mukesh Ambani-led RIL—Reliance Brands Ltd (RBL)—will acquire a 40 percent stake in Italy-based Plastic Legno's toy manufacturing business in India.

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At 1239 IST, shares of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate were trading 3 percent higher at Rs 2,711.15 on the BSE.

RIL share price performance intraday

Year-To-Date (YTD), the stock has gained 14 percent whereas the benchmark Nifty50 was down about 5 percent during the same period.

Today's uptick in the stock was after the announcement of acquisition by Reliance Brands.

“Reliance Brands Limited (RBL) And Plastic Legno SPA have signed a joint venture arrangement through which RBL will acquire a 40 percent stake in plastic legno spa’s toy manufacturing business in India,” the exchange filing said.

RBL has a strong play in the toys industry with its portfolio of Hamleys the British toy retailer, and homegrown toy brand Rowan, making it one of the leading toy distributors, RIL said in the press release.

Hamleys currently has a footprint across 15 countries with 213 doors and is India's largest chain of toy stores, the release said.

“It is imperative for RBL to build design to shelf capability for a strategic advantage over the competition and be an accelerator in building a robust toy manufacturing ecosystem in India, not only for domestic consumption but also for global markets,” said a spokesperson for RBL.

RBL, a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, launches and builds global brands in luxury to premium segments across fashion and lifestyle. RBL today operates 1,937 doors split into 732 stores and 1,205 shop-in-shops in India.

Its current portfolio of brand partnerships comprises Armani Exchange, Bottega Veneta, Brooks Brothers, Burberry, Canali, Coach, Diesel, Emporio Armani, Gas, Giorgio Armani, Hamleys, Hugo Boss, Jimmy Choo, Manish Malhotra, Michael Kors, Steve Madden, Superdry, Scotch & Soda, Tiffany & Co., Versace among others.

In 2019, RBL marked its first international foray by acquiring Hamleys.

RIL has been on an acquisition spree. In March, the Nifty50 index heavyweight said Reliance Retail Ventures will buy a majority stake in Clovia. It also announced the acquisition of assets of Lithium Werks, a cobalt-free lithium battery technology company, in March.

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