Reliance Retail, Adani Group No Longer In The Race To Acquire Future Retail: Report

The highest bid received is from Space Mantra, while five other firms have placed their bid for parts of the company, according to a news report

Reliance Retail and Adani Group have exited from the final round of bidding for Future Retail (FRL), citing sources ET Now reported. According to the report, six final bids have been received for Future Retail. The highest bid received is from Space Mantra, while five other firms have placed their bid for parts of the company.

These five bidders are Pinnacle Air, Palgun Tech LLC, Lehar Solutions, Goodwill Furniture and Sarvabhishta e-waste management, according to the ET Now report. Creditors of FRL invited new Expressions of Interest (EoIs) on March 23, whereby prospective buyers can bid for the debt-ridden firm "as a going concern or individual cluster or a combination of clusters of its assets", as it failed to attract a resolution plan in more than four months.

In April, 48 companies, including Reliance Retail and Adani Group, were shortlisted in the list of eligible resolution applicants for Future Retail. On April 10, FRL updated a list of 49 companies, which had submitted EoIs after the company's lenders decided to invite fresh bids after dividing its assets into clusters.

Some of the other players who had submitted EoIs include WHSmith Travel Ltd, Sahara Enterprises, Century Copper Corp, Greentech worldwide, Harsha Vardhan Reddy, J C Flowers Asset Reconstruction Pvt Ltd, Pinnacle Air Pvt Ltd, and Universal Associates.

Except for Bommidala Enterprises, an Andhra Pradesh-based manufacturer of tobacco products, all companies were included in the final list. Bommidala Enterprises indicated that it will not be submitting a resolution plan.

Earlier in April, the Mumbai-based National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) bench had granted FRL an extension of 90 days till July 15, 2023, for concluding the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP).

FRL operated multiple retail formats in both the hypermarket supermarket and home segments under brands, such as Big Bazaar, Easyday, and Foodhall. At its peak, FRL was operating over 1,500 outlets in nearly 430 cities.

It was part of the 19 Future group companies operating in the retail, wholesale, logistic and warehousing segments, which were supposed to be transferred to Reliance Retail as part of a Rs 24,713-crore deal announced in August 2020.