Reliance Retail, Jindal (India) make offers to acquire bankrupt Future Enterprises

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail Ventures, Naveen Jindal promoted Jindal (India) and GBTL submitted expressions of interest for acquiring Future Enterprises (FEL) under the corporate insolvency process, disclosures made by the debt-laden company to the stock exchange showed.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted Kishore Biyani’s Future Enterprises for corporate insolvency on February 27 after a deal to sell the assets of Future Group in a slump sale to Reliance Industries collapsed.

GBTL makes polyester viscose fabric, and formal and casual clothing. In 2017, the Donear Group acquired GBTL from Grasim Industries.


Reliance Retail Venture, a subsidiary of India’s most-valued conglomerate Reliance Industries, had proposed acquiring Future Group assets. According to the agreement, 19 Future Group companies including Future Retail, Future Lifestyle Fashions, Future Consumer and Future Supply Chain would merge into FEL.


Subsequently, by way of a slump sale, FEL would sell the retail and wholesale businesses including Big Bazaar, fbb, Foodhall, Easyday, Nilgiris, Central and Brand Factory to Reliance Retail & Fashion Lifestyle, and the logistics and warehouse business to Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.

The administrator, who has invited resolution plans from the EoI applicants by August 24, has admitted Rs 12,265 crore of verified claims from lenders and Rs 23 crore of claims from fixed deposit holders.

Future's Assets

The company has assets in the form of building and furniture valuing Rs 715 crore, according to a note circulated by RP inviting EoI. The company has leased retail infrastructure valuing Rs 2,644 crore to Future Retail and Rs 92 crore to Praxis Home Retail, the same document stated.

FEL had significant borrowings in the form of bonds, and thus, several trusteeship companies have filed claims. Centbank Financial Services has filed the highest claim of Rs 3,344 crore, followed by Axis Trustee Services at Rs 1,341 crore and Vistra ITCL (India) at Rs 210 crore.

Four Future Group companies - Future Enterprises, Future Retail, Future Lifestyles Fashion Ltd and Future Supply Chain - are undergoing insolvency proceedings.

The Future Group, which was already over-leveraged, suffered a setback due to the nationwide lockdown announced in 2020 to curb the spread of Covid-19. Most of its hypermarket stores located in malls remained shut for several months.

In August 2020, the deal with Reliance collapsed due to a series of litigations by e-commerce giant Amazon.com claiming a violation of the shareholder agreement it had with the company delayed the deal.

In March 2022, Reliance Industries took possession of the premises housing some 900 Future Retail stores citing non-payment of rent. In April last year, most secured lenders rejected the deal with Reliance Industries. Thereafter, the four Future group companies were admitted for corporate insolvency.