Kalyan Jewellers shares in focus as Warburg Pincus eyes 10% stake in Candere

Shares of Kalyan Jewellers India are in focus on Wednesday morning after a media report citing sources suggested that Warburg Pincus is in discussions with the Kerala-based firm to acquire about 10 per cent stake in the jewellery maker's lifestyle brand Candere for Rs 800-850 crore. This would mark Warburg Pincus' return to the Kalyan Jewellers group as an investor, following its exit last year. The New York-based private equity firm was an investor in Kalyan Jewellers from 2014 to 2024.

With the successful scale-up of its new franchise businesses (40 per cent revenue contribution) and continued success in non-Southern markets, Kalyan has established itself as a leading brand in the industry, analysts noted. Its non-South expansion has improved the studded jewelry mix, while the asset-light expansion supports healthy cash flow generation for debt repayment and enhances profitability by reducing interest costs, MOFSL said last month, adding that Kalyan is also gaining momentum in the Middle East and the US.

This brokerage expects Kalyan Jewellers to report 21 per cent growth in revenue, 17 per cent growth in Ebitda and 21 per cent growth in profit after tax, compounded annually, over FY26-28.

As per the ET report, the global private equity firm would buy a part of this stake from Kalyan Jewellers, while the rest will be newly issued shares in Candere, a source told the ET. Candere would use the proceeds from newly issued shares to expand its presence, as per the report.

“Kalyan Jewellers is in the process of rapidly expanding its store footprint…this includes an addition of around 80-90 Candere stores, which it is setting up across the country through a franchise-led model,” the person told ET.

Business Today could not verify the report at this point in time.

ET report noted that the jewellery retail space including the lifestyle and lab-grown diamonds sections saw several deals recently, including direct-to-consumer jewellery startup Giva getting a Rs 530-crore investment from Creaegis, PremjiInvest, Epiq Capital and Edelweiss Discovery Fund, lab-grown diamond maker Aukera raising $15 million from Peak XV Partners and others, and the public market listing of BlueStone after a Rs 1,540 crore initial public offering.

Kalyan Jewellers has been aggressively expanding Candere amid increasing demand for jewellery items that are branded, trendy and affordable, even as the broader industry sees headwinds from volatile gold prices.

The valuation of Candere, founded in 2013 as an online jewellery retailer, has grown manifold since Kalyan Jewellers acquired an 85 per cent stake in 2017 from Singularity Strategic, the family office of Brijesh Chandwani and Subram Kapoor, for Rs 35–40 crore. In 2024, it bought out the remaining 15 per cent from founder Rupesh Jain, transitioning Candere from an online-only platform into an omnichannel retailer, ET reported.

“Over the last 12 to 18 months, we have been giving shape to our plans to expand the distribution network beyond the mainstream Kalyan Jewellers,” Kalyan Jewellers executive director Ramesh Kalyanaraman said during the company’s quarterly earnings call on August 7. “Candere was identified as a second format with predominant focus on lightweight lifestyle jewellery…and we added more than 70 Candere showrooms in the last 18 months,” he said.