OREANDA-NEWSMelon Fashion Group, which owns the trade networks of befree clothing, Love Republic and Zarina, is negotiating to buy a Sela retailer, said a Russian news source in investment circles and confirmed a consultant in the commercial real estate market. The first interlocutor clarifies that the parties agree on the purchase of the entire Sela business, the second - that the negotiations are at an advanced stage, but no documents have yet been signed.

Now, according to the information on the site, Sela has more than 400 stores (of which, according to the INFOLine-Analytics agency, 150 are own) and representative offices in nine countries. Clothing and accessories are manufactured under the Sela brand, and production sites are located in Russia, China and Bangladesh. Retailer's revenue in 2018 declined by about 4%, to 5.5 billion rubles, according to INFOLine-Analytics. According to estimates, the cost of Sela business does not exceed 500 million rubles.

In March of this year, Boris Ostrobrod said that the network is looking for an investor: the company was considering the possibility of raising funds in exchange for a share in the company and even selling a majority stake. According to Ostrobrod, the company considered such options in connection with plans to diversify the business, which required additional investments - at least 1.3 billion rubles.

Melon Fashion Group was established in 2005 on the basis of the St. Petersburg factory "Pervomaiskaya Zarya". Now it manages three networks: befree, Love Republic and Zarina, the total number of stores is 575. Among the shareholders of the retailer are Swedish Eastnine (35.96%) and East Capital Holding (11.23%), Cyprus's I.G.M. Manufactrust Ltd (35.53%), general director Mikhail Urzhumtsev (6.12%).

At the end of 2018, Melon Fashion Group entered the top 100 Russian retailers for the first time, which is INFOLine-Analytics. The network took 99th place with revenue of 14.2 billion rubles. (plus 15% of the previous year). Among the fashion networks working on the Russian market, the group ranks 20th in terms of revenue. In the first place is the Sportmaster group (including O'stin) with 107.5 billion rubles.