Scrap dealers, waste management firms among 49 vying for Future Retail

As many as 49 companies have shown interest in acquiring Future Retail through the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). Among the 49 firms, Reliance Retail Ventures, Adani Group-backed April Moon Retail, Jindal Power, UK-based WHSmith Travel are some of the big firms vying for Future Retail, which owned brands like Big Bazaar.

Stressed asset investment funds like UV Stressed Asset Management and a consortium of Payard Investments Pvt Ltd and Gordon Brothers International LLC have also submitted their Expression of Interest. JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction Private Ltd has also submitted its EoI, the last date of which was 7th April 2022.

While the 49 firms which have shown interest in acquiring the assets of Future Retail are from all across diverse sectors – power, metal, retail, etc – a good number of them are scrap dealers, waste management and recycling companies.

As many as 13 companies had submitted their EoIs the last time in November 2022. But none of them submitted any resolution plan then despite multiple extension of dates. Therefore, resolution professional Vijay Kumar V Iyer once again invited EOIs for the erstwhile Kishore Biyani-owned company.

As per the schedule, the last date for submission of EoI was now 7 April 2023, and for the issuance of provisional list pf prospective resolution applicants (PRAs) was on 8 April. The final list will be issued by 13 April after verifying any objections to the provisional list of PRAs. The deadline for PRAs to submits their resolution plan is 15 May 2023.

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.

Financial creditors of Future Retail Ltd have submitted claims of ₹21,450 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 19,225 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.

Also Read: Resolution professional detects Rs 15,000 cr fraudulent transactions in Future Retail