Future Retail Lenders Move Supreme Court, Call For Its Assets To Be Put Up For Auction

The lenders have said they would be required by law to provision around Rs 9,000 crore in their books if there is any default on the part of Future Retail

In a stock exchange filing, Future said that it was unable to pay Rs 3,500 crore it owed to its lenders on December 31, as it could not sell certain small stores amid the row with Amazon. Image: Getty

New Delhi: Future Retail lenders have moved Supreme Court and said that the assets of retail firm should be put up for auction after it missed payments.

In a filing to the Supreme Court, the lenders of Future Retail have said this, according to a news published in Reuters.

The lenders have already classified their loans to the retailer as a ‘non-performing asset’ (NPA) after Future Retail missed payments to the banks.

The lenders have said they would be required by law to provision around Rs 9,000 crore in their books if there is any default on the part of Future Retail.

According to Reuters, lenders have already classified or begun classifying the loan account of Future Retail as an NPA since the payment was not made within the stipulated time, the lenders mentioned in the filing.

However, Future declined to comment.

Being classified as an NPA will raise financial troubles for India’s second-largest retail chain, which has for months tried to sell its assets to rival Reliance Industries (RIL), but failed to do so because of legal hurdles from its partner Amazon Inc.

Future last month, after it missed making certain payments on its loans, challenged its lenders in the Supreme Court to avoid facing insolvency proceedings or being classified as a defaulter, citing its ongoing legal dispute with Amazon.

Future has failed to complete its $3.4-billion retail asset sale as the US e-commerce giant has successfully argued before several legal forums that the Indian retail major violated certain non-compete contractual terms. However, Future denies any wrongdoing.

In a stock exchange filing, Future said that it was unable to pay Rs 3,500 crore it owed to its lenders on December 31, as it could not sell certain small stores amid the row with Amazon. The retail firm had expected to use a 30-day grace period to resolve the conflict, but was not able to do so.