According to the latest media reports, the resolution professional responsible for Future Retail Limited has decided to extend the deadline for potential buyers to submit their bids for the retailer.
Future Retail Limited owned by the renowned Future Group was one of the largest retail chains in India with a significant market presence in both urban and semi urban cities. Famous supermarket chains such as Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, and Hometown of Future Group are being operated through Future Retail Limited.
As the company defaulted in repaying a large number of loans which was borrowed from various financial institutions, the lenders decided to move for insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings under the insolvency and bankruptcy code. So far the lenders of the company have claimed 2.55 billion dollars in unpaid loans from Future Retail Limited. The insolvency proceedings began in August and a resolution professional was appointed to look after the proceedings.
The latest reports suggest that the resolution professional has extended the deadline from October 20 2022 to November 3, 2022. Interested parties can submit their bids for assets and businesses of Future Retail Limited by 3rd November.
Individuals who know the new developments told media agencies that no significant bids have been received till the moment.
Future Group had earlier tried to sell the retail assets of future Retail Limited to Reliance industries owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani. The sale of assets was planned for a sum of 3.4 billion dollars. If gone through, the deal was supposed to be one of the largest Acquisitions in the retail market of India.
The deal was not able to proceed as lender banks rejected such a deal. A legal challenge also negatively impacted the deal. American multinational e-commerce giant Amazon filed a lawsuit against Future Group and the Reliance industries deal stating that the sale of assets will violate various contracts entered into by Amazon and Future Group.
The initial plan of Future Group was to sell assets of Future Retail Limited to Reliance Industries and use that money to repay the loans of 34 banks including HDFC Bank, Barclays Bank, State Bank of India, and Bank of India to name a few.
The resolution professional appointed to Future Retail Limited has so far not made any comments or statements regarding details of extension in the deadlines for submitting bids.
Reliance Industries under Mukesh Ambani has been trying to expand its businesses into the retail market sector in India. As part of the expansion plan, Mukesh Ambani had named his daughter, Isha Ambani, as head of the Retail division of the multinational conglomerate.
