Only 6 Companies Bids For Future Retail, Big Ones Such As Reliance And Adani Opt-Out

The lenders of debt-ridden Future Retail Ltd (FRL) have received six bids from prospective buyers by May 15, which was the last date for submission of resolution plans.

The company is "in receipt of resolution plans/bids from 6 prospective resolution applicants in response to the Request for Resolution Plans" said the regulatory filing by FRL without disclosing the names.

According to the media reports, major corporate houses such as Reliance Retail, Jindal Power Ltd and Adani Group had not filed their bids despite being selected in the final list of 48 companies.

The deadline for submission of resolution plans was May 15, 2023, for 48 companies, which were in the final list of 'Eligible Prospective Resolution Applicants'.

This has happened despite FRL lenders coming with revised Expressions of Interest (EoIs) and inviting fresh bids after dividing its assets into clusters.

Future Retail has a debt of around Rs 30,000 crore and the company is going through Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP).

"The aforesaid submissions were opened in the meeting of the Committee of Creditors of the Corporate Debtor held on May 16, 2023, in the presence of the prospective resolution applicants,” it said.

Earlier on April 24, FRL creditors had come out with a final list of 48 companies, including Reliance Retail, Jindal Power Ltd and Adani Group, which were in the final list of eligible prospective resolution applicants for acquiring the company.

Some of the other players who had submitted EoIs include WHSmith Travel Ltd, Sahara Enterprises, Century Copper Corp, Greentech worldwide, Harsha Vardhan Reddy, J C Flowers Asset Reconstruction Pvt Ltd, Pinnacle Air Pvt Ltd and Universal Associates.

This time Committee of Creditors had provided two options - In the first option, companies could bid for the acquisition of FRL as a whole and Under the second option, FRL's business has been distributed into five clusters and were given liberty to pick any one or in combination.

Last month the Mumbai-based NCLT bench had granted FRL an extension of 90 days till July 15, 2023 for concluding the CIRP.

On March 23, 2023, creditors of FRL invited new EoIs whereby prospective buyers can bid for the debt-ridden firm "as a going concern or individual cluster or a combination of clusters of its assets", as it failed to attract a resolution plan in more than four months.

Earlier, it had received EoIs and finalised 11 prospective bidders, including Reliance and April Moon Retail, but could not get a resolution plan despite two extensions in the deadline for submissions.

FRL operated multiple retail formats in both the hypermarket supermarket and home segments under brands such as Big Bazaar, Easyday, and Foodhall. At its peak, FRL was operating more than 1,500 outlets in nearly 430 cities.