The chain readies to expand its footprint as Bharti focuses on its retail venture.
Future Retail, once the crown jewel of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, is now heading for liquidation as its lenders could not get any reasonable buyer of the debt-ridden firm. As the Committee of Creditors (CoC) rejected the sole resolution plan submitted by Space Mantra after four extensions in the deadline to complete the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP), the RP of the company has now approached NCLT to initiate liquidation of Future Retail (FRL). "The resolution plan submitted by Space Mantra Private has not been approved by CoC of FRL, kindly note that, the Resolution Professional (RP) has filed an application, before the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench, for initiation of liquidation of FRL," said a regulatory filing from FRL.
As many as 48 companies, including Reliance Retail, Jindal Power Ltd and Adani group, are in the final list of eligible prospective resolution applicants for acquiring debt-ridden Future Retail Ltd. The Resolution Professional of Future Retail Ltd (FRL), which is currently going through an insolvency resolution process, on Monday came out with the final list of 'Eligible Prospective Resolution Applicants'. On April 10, FRL's RP updated a list of 49 companies, which had submitted Expressions of Interest (EoIs) after the company's lenders decided to invite fresh bids after dividing its assets into clusters.
In a fresh twist in the fight to gain supremacy in the Indian retail market, billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail has slapped notices on Future Retail for terminating sub-leases of 950 stores it had taken over previously. In stock exchange filings, the Kishore Biyani-led debt-laded Future Group firms said they have been served notices to terminate the lease of 835 Future Retail stores and 112 Future Lifestyle stores. Last month, Reliance Retail had taken over store spaces for which the Future Group couldn't pay lease rent. These were then sub-let to the Future Group for operation.
As many as 49 players including Reliance Retail, Jindal Power Ltd and Adani group have submitted Expression of Interest (EoI) for acquiring the assets of debt-ridden Future Retail, which is currently going through insolvency resolution process. Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, which is the holding company for retail operations of RIL and April Moon Retail Private Ltd, a joint venture between Adani Airport holdings and Flemingo group have again submitted their EOI, after the lenders of Future Retail decided to invite fresh bids after dividing FRL's assets into clusters. According to an update from FRL's Resolution Professional, the 49 players would be permitted to submit "resolution plan(s) for any/all such Clusters under Option II".
Many people in the city fear that even going to markets could pose a threat and departmental stores have started reporting a gap in demand and supply of commodities.
Bharti Retail has started offering facility to pay shopping bills through mobile phones
The two former partners own about 100 such properties; expansion of Best Price, EasyDay stores only after transactions linked to the split are over.
In 2020-21, business activities were hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Biyani's annual remuneration stood at Rs 3.86 crore in 2019-20, according to Future Retail Ltd's (FRL) annual report for 2020-21. FRL's managing director Rakesh Biyani also saw his remuneration decline by 4.82 per cent to Rs 3.75 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2021.
Debt-ridden Future Group is now focusing on saving and rebuilding firms such as -- Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Supply Chain Solutions, Future Consumer and Future Enterprises, after the Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail was rejected by secured creditors, according to industry sources. However, Future Group's flagship firm Future Retail Ltd (FRL), which has nearly Rs 18,000 crore debt, is bound to face the corporate insolvency resolution process before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Other companies like Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL), Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd (FLFL), Future Supply Chain Solutions Ltd (FSCSL), Future Consumer Ltd (FCL) can sustain on their own and can be rebuilt by restructuring their liabilities with the help of current lenders and investors, said an industry source close to the Future Group.
Days after billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led group took some of the stores of Future Group, whose lease had expired due to the non-payment of rent, Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday accused the two of 'fraud' and said such 'contumacious' transfer will be liable to legal action.
Under its door-step delivery model, consumers can shop at any of the three Future Group-owned convenience formats - Easyday, Nilgiris and Heritage - both online or offline.
The sale of Nature's Basket, Godrej's chain of food stores in west India, is the second exit by a big group in a year in the category
Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Wednesday said it is "committed" to reversal of takeover of its stores by Reliance Retail and will take all such action as may be necessary to seek value adjustments. The Kishore Biyani-led firm also said the action of the Reliance Group has come as a "surprise" to it. Moreover, the action of taking possession of its stores has "complicated" the positive scenario which had started building up after a CCI order in December 2021, FRL said in a regulatory filing.
Future Retail's independent directors had last week asked Amazon if it was willing to give a long-term loan to avoid default on repayment of Rs 3,500 crore loan due on January 29. Amazon replied to that saying it was willing to financially assist Future Retail through the Samara Capital deal but the retailer must shelve Rs 24,713 crore deal with the Reliance group.
Reliance Retail will acquire the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses of the Future Group. Future Group's financial and insurance businesses are not part of the deal.
After ending its wholesale partnership with Walmart, Bharti Retail has decided to merge with the Future group
Future group founder Kishore Biyani on Wednesday said the homegrown retail major lost nearly Rs 7,000 crore revenue in first three-four months of the Covid-19 pandemic due to closing of stores, which led him to sell his business to Reliance Industries.
Embattled retailer Future Retail Ltd (FRL) on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court to avert insolvency proceedings over missing a loan repayment deadline, even as its independent directors rejected an Amazon-supported offer to sell the company businesses at less than a third of what Mukesh Ambani's Reliance is offering. India's second-largest retailer, which operates multi-brand retail chains such as Big Bazaar, Easyday and Heritage, failed to pay Rs 3,494.56 crore to lenders by the due date of December-end and sought a 30-day grace period to resolve the situation. Unable to find money, it moved the apex court seeking to restrain its lenders from declaring the company a defaulter, which can invite initiation of insolvency proceedings.
Bharti-Walmart Pvt Ltd, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and global retail major Walmart Stores, on Wednesday opened its first agricultural cooperative centre at Sirhind in Punjab.
Bharti Enterprises vice chairman and managing director Rajan Mittal said most of these will be Easyday stores.
Bharti Retail exuded confidence that it is 'on course' to become a billion dollar company by 2015, and will open 40 more stores in the next three months notwithstanding the economic slowdown.
Since allowing FDI in multi-brand retail has been left to the states, Indian companies may not benefit as foreign investors are wary of the politics.
Big retail is fine tuning its strategy to win over critics and corporate social responsibility drives are providing it with the means.ITC and Reliance have already launched projects to recruit street hawkers, the main adversaries of big retail. And now Bharti Mittal has opened a retail innings of its chain, Easy Day, in Ludhiana with something similar.
There is immense pressure on Biyani to go ahead with the RIL offer after FRL defaulted on its interest payments of Rs 100 crore on July 22.
Portal to be launched in three months, says Future Group's Kishore Biyani
The company has entered into a strategic partnership with Scootsy, a hyper-local delivery platform
Footfalls will invariably come down to a trickle even after lockdown restrictions go away, and the only way to prevent someone else from poaching your consumer is to go down to the consumer herself. Consumers will prefer products and services to be delivered to their doorstep, hygienically and safely.
Future Group and V-Mart have put in place systems to prevent panic buying at their neighbourhood grocery stores.
Bharti Retail launched its first mall, The Pavilion, in Ludhiana.
T E Narasimhan/Business Standard reports from Chennai on how the Future group plans to shore up its small store network in the South.
The expansion into smaller towns is coming at a time when the online retail space has not only seen consolidation but is actually looking to collaborate with physical stores. Abhineet Kumar reports.
The move is likely to hit Bharti-Walmart, the 50:50 joint venture between the US' Walmart and Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group that operates cash-and-carry outlets in India, the most.
Deciding to focus on the cash-and-carry segment in India, retail giant Wal-Mart plans to open 50 wholesale stores in the next four to five years to expand its footprint in the country.
National brands prefer the acquisition route since the southern market is culturally different, reports T E Narasimhan from Chennai.
Rejecting the demand of global retailers like Walmart, the government on Wednesday said there is no plan to relax the mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing norms for foreign players in the multi-brand retail sector.
Walmart acquired Bharti's 50 per cent stake in the wholesale joint venture.
Bharti Retail will issue one equity share of Rs 2 each for every share of Rs 2 held in Future Retail
This could mean an end to the talks for a possible partnership between the two firms in the multi-brand retail space -- less than a year after 51 per cent foreign investment was allowed in the sector.
Global retail giant Walmart has got fair trade regulator CCI's green signal for purchase of Bharti group's almost 50 per cent stake in their Indian joint venture for wholesale stores business.
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