Financial creditors of Future Retail submits over Rs 21,000 crore claims
Financial creditors of Future Retail Ltd have submitted claims of ₹21,058 crore under the ongoing corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP).
As many as 33 banks have submitted these claims with Bank of New York Mellon submitting the largest claim of Rs 4,670 crore followed by Bank of Baroda (Rs 2,286 crore) and Union Bank of India (2,002 crore).
The resolution professional – Vijaykumar V Iyer – has already verified Rs 17,512 crore of the claims and while the rest is yet to be verified. Based on their exposure, Bank of New York Mellon has the highest voting share of 23.47%, followed by Bank of Baroda at 12.24% and Union Bank of India at 10.82%.
The operational creditors have also submitted claims of Rs 265 crore while workers dues include Rs 9.83 crore.
The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on 20 June 2022 admitted Bank of India’s plea to initiate corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against Future Retail for defaulting on a payment of Rs 856 crore.
E-commerce giant Amazon had tried hard at preventing the BOI’s plea being admitted by the adjudicating authority. The US e-commerce giant had filed an intervention application to thwart the insolvency proceeding being admitted by the NCLT.
However, NCLT not only dismissed Amazon’s plea but made some harsh observation against the latter’s plea.
The NCLT observed that the entire basis of the Intervention Application is speculative in nature and remains unsubstantiated with evidence, documentary or otherwise. It further said that the Intervention Application is riddled with speculations insofar the Applicant has contended that, “it appears that the lender Banks are not only silent spectators but willing collaborators in the fraud.”
Amazon contented that the creditors entered into a Framework Agreement on 26 April 2021 with FRL despite their knowledge of the fact that the Singapore International Arbitration Court (SIAC) had through an emergency arbitration directed Future Retail to not enter into any such agreement. It also argued that the insolvency petition arose because of Future Retails inability to comply with the clauses of the agreement, which itself is void.
Also read: Amazon opposes insolvency petition against Future Retail
