Reliance, Jindal Power, Adani Keen At Acquiring Future Retail’s Assets

Several large companies have expressed interest in acquiring Future Retail's assets, which is currently going through an insolvency process. The list includes Reliance Retail, Jindal Power Ltd, and Adani group.

After Future Retail decided to invite fresh bids for FRL’s assets, Reliance Retail Ventures and April Moon Retail submitted their EOI. The lenders of Future Retail have divided FRL’s assets into clusters and are now inviting new bids. FRL has published an update permitting 49 players to submit resolution plans for any/all clusters under Option II.

In addition to Century Copper Corp and Greentech Worldwide, other players have submitted Expressions of Interest (EoI), including J C Flowers Asset Reconstruction , Pinnacle Air, Universal Associates and WHSmith Travel.

As one may recall, Future Retail's invited new expressions of interest on 23 March, 2023. Prospective buyers could bid for the debt-ridden firm "as a going concern" or "as an individual cluster" or "a combination of clusters of its assets", as no resolution plan had been proposed in over four months.

The company received EOI and finalised 11 prospective bidders, including Reliance and April Moon Retail, but was unable to get a resolution plan despite two extensions. The Committee of Creditors had provided two options in the EoI, for which the last date for submission was 7 April, 2023.

The first option would allow the Prospective Resolution Applicant (PRA) to make a proposal to purchase Future Retail as a whole, along with its ownership stake in its subsidiaries. The business of Future Retail has been divided into five clusters under the second option, and PRAs are free to submit bids for "any single cluster or any combination of clusters."

The new EOI explained its rationale as follows: "Taking into account the complexity and extent of activities of FRL, the resolution professional has, in conjunction with and prior permission of the CoC of FRL, classified the business of the corporate debtor in five clusters." As FRL stopped making loan payments, Bank of India, the company's lender, started CIRP against it. On 4 October, 2022, prospective bidders were asked to submit expressions of interest in accordance with the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code. Eventually, it was republished, the deadline for submitting the Resolution Plan was extended, and on 15 November, 2022, a final list of 15 PRAs was released.