Kishore Biyani, managing director, said the initial public offer would raise around Rs 2000 crore (Rs 2 billion), but refused to comment on the nature of the new company.
Retail chains may be struggling in the face of the economic slowdown, but Kishore Biyani's Future Group seems to be buoyant in the New Year, expecting to do well in the quarter ending March 2009.
Future group promoter Kishore Biyani's stake fell consistently across group companies since December 2019 after American retail major Amazon infused funds in a Future group promoter entity and the group companies started showing signs of financial distress due to closure of stores due to Covid-19 pandemic. As lenders take Future group companies to the bankruptcy courts to recover their dues under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the shareholders of Future group companies are staring at complete wipeout of their investments as secured lenders get top priority in any potential recovery, say lawyers. "The fate of all Future group shareholders is now sealed with them looking at a complete loss.
Future Group aims to increase customer spends - average of Rs 20,000 over 10 visits at its stores in a year
Taking control of manufacturing will help boost profits for the food business, but it could leave the group saddled with huge debt.
According to the plan made by the lenders and RIL, all Future group listed companies will be merged into Future Enterprises. RIL will then invest Rs 8,500 crore in the merged entity which will include the retail business.
Making its entry into the last mile retail space, Kishore Biyani promoted Future Group on Wednesday said it will set up 1,500 new format fairprice shops over the next two years.
The venture, on the lines of Kishore Biyani's Future Ventures India, will focus its investments in the information technology sector, said a source familiar with the development.
Shares of Future Group firms on Monday faced heavy drubbing, tanking up to 20 per cent, after Reliance Industries said its Rs 24,713-crore deal to acquire Future Group's assets cannot be implemented after secured creditors of the Kishore Biyani-led companies voted against the proposal. The stock of Future Consumer plummeted 19.91 per cent, Future Supply Chain Solutions slipped 19.96 per cent, Future Lifestyle Fashions 19.89 per cent, Future Enterprises tumbled 9.87 per cent and Future Retail fell 4.96 per cent on the BSE. Shares of Reliance Industries also dipped 1.75 per cent.
Future Consumer Enterprise Ltd, the food and FMCG arm of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, on Friday acquired south India-based convenience store chain Nilgiris for nearly Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion).
Future's home retailing interests, including furniture and furnishings, are housed under Praxis Home Retail, which was created in FY18 when the group demerged the business from Future Retail.
Future group firms are convening meetings of their respective shareholders and creditors in November to seek approval to their proposed merger into Future Enterprises as part of the 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Retail. Several listed transferor firms including Future Retail, Future Consumer, Future Enterprises, Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Markets Networks and Future Supply Chain Solutions - have informed their shareholders and creditors about the meetings which will take place on November 10 and 11. The meetings of the equity shareholders, secured creditors and unsecured creditors will be held through video conferencing /other audio-visual means, said Future group companies, adding that remote e-voting facility will be offered to all participants.
Kishore Biyani-promoted Future group's venture capital arm, Future Ventures, has revived its plans to hit the capital market and will be initiating listing formalities by filing a prospectus with market regulator Sebi on Wednesday.
Future Group founder and CEO Kishore Biyani on Tuesday said Amazon was fully aware of his group's talks with Reliance Industries for the sale of retail assets that followed the US giant offering no concrete help to tide over the cash crisis. Opening up after being locked in an intense legal battle with Amazon over the Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance, Biyani in an interview with PTI said the US giant's 2019 investment in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL) -- Future Retail's parent -- was for coupon and gifting business only and the same could continue post-retail assets going to Reliance. He hoped to complete the deal with Reliance within two months of Sebi approval.
Subscribers will get free talk-time based on their purchases at the group's stores.
From the stock perspective, though, even as all the 10 analysts polled by Bloomberg have a 'buy' recommendation on FRL, their target price of Rs 535 suggest most of the positives are already priced in.
The partnership will initially focus on the Future Group fashion brands.
Future group has gone premium for the first time with Holii. A bag and accessories brand, it was soft-launched in 2009. The prices begin at Rs 700, with most of the bags costing upwards of Rs 1,800.
'Anything you buy from any Future outlet should have financing options by us'
For the fiscal ended 2021, the group has made a loss of Rs 5,943 crore on sales of Rs 11,723 crore, a drop of 66 per cent over fiscal 2020. The group's total debt was up by 7 per cent to Rs 20,742 crore.
Reliance Industries on Saturday said its Rs 24,713-crore deal with the Future Group cannot go ahead as secured creditors of the latter have voted against it.
Venturing into the outdoor media business, Kishore Biyani's Future group, with retail brands such as Pantaloon, Big Bazaar
Consumer durables major Videocon and Kishore Biyani's Future group have entered into an agreement to source consumer durables.
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.
The development of the constitution of the tribunal comes at a time when the Delhi high court in December 2020 refused to restrain Amazon from interfering in Future Retail's deal with Reliance Retail by writing to statutory authorities.
R C Agarwal, promoter of beleaguered Vishal Retail, on Wednesday came out in support of the offer from Texas Pacific Group (TPG) in preference to that from Kishore Biyani's Future Group.
The JV will be set up in about 8-10 cities, including Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Indore, Jaipur, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai. The investment is expected to provide significant synergies to the Future Group, which has a large advertisement budget and aligns well with the group's businesses such as Future Media, which has interests in media and advertising.
Future Capital Holding disclosed its plans to enter asset management and retail broking. A credit card tie up with ICICI bank is also in the pipeline.
Consider this: Kishore Biyani's Future Group, which owns the country's largest retailer Pantaloon, is converting the standalone stores of book and music chain Depot into shop-in-shops within Big Bazaar. While the number of Depot shop-in-shops has risen to 123, that of standalone stores has come down to nine. Same with UK-based footwear brand Lee Cooper.
Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Capital Holdings has received the regulatory go-ahead from Sebi for its initial public offer, estimated to raise between Rs 400-500 crore (Rs 4-5 billion).
The issue will carry a small price band to make it affordable to the retail investor. The company will issue 3,736.15 million shares.
The Kishore Biyani-led group is scaling up operations with Foodhall, its latest venture in the food retail space, which would offer a different format to cater to the growing aspirations of consumers.
Bharti Retail will issue one equity share of Rs 2 each for every share of Rs 2 held in Future Retail
Besides Ezone, Future Group operates other retail formats like Pantaloons, Big Bazaar and Brand Factory.
Biyani's comments come on the heels of the Committee of Secretaries' recommendations for opening up the multi-brand retail sector to foreign investment, with a cap of 51 per cent and a minimum investment of $100 million by overseas players.
Public sector lender Bank of India has moved to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking initiation of insolvency proceedings against Future Retail Ltd and a moratorium over the assets of the Kishore Biyani-led debt-ridden firm. Besides, Bank of India (BOI), the lead banker of a consortium of banks that lent money to Future Retail Ltd (FRL), also suggested the insolvency tribunal appoint Vijay Kumar V Iyer as the interim professional of the company. Meanwhile FRL, in a regulatory filing, said it has been served and received a copy of the petition and is in the "process of taking legal advice".
Not just Tesco, Auchan, Walmart, even Biyani & Reliance keen on food FDI: Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Sources familiar with the development said the Japanese giant had made it a pre-condition to invest in Future Group's food sourcing and back-end infrastructure.
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.
Future Group Founder & CEO Kishore Biyani wants to take his pet theme of 'collaboration' to the next level for a greater share of the consumer's wallet.