India's Sheela Foam to buy mattress maker Kurlon for $262 mln

BENGALURU, July 17 (Reuters) - Mattress maker Sheela Foam on Monday said it will buy a nearly 95% stake in rival Kurlon for 21.5 billion rupees ($262.09 million) in a cash deal as it eyes a bigger share in India's mattress market.

Shares of the company, which makes the "Sleepwell" brand of mattresses, had jumped about 6% after news website Moneycontrol reported the deal earlier on Monday. They are still down about 7% since talks were first reported late in December.

Kurlon has over 50 warehouses and 12 manufacturing facilities across five Indian states, according to its latest annual report.

Ghaziabad-based Sheela Foam said it expects to complete the transaction by November 30, 2023.

Kurlon's sales rose 5.4% to 8.09 billion rupees in fiscal 2022. Audited figures for Kurlon's fiscal 2023 were not available yet, Sheela Foam said.

Sheela Foam also said it will acquire about 35% in furniture rental company Furlenco for 3 billion rupees.

($1 = 82.0326 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee

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