Reliance Retail among 3 companies eligible to submit resolution plan for Future Enterprises bankruptcy

Reliance Industries's retail arm is among three companies eligible to submit a plan for the debt-ridden Future Enterprises' bankruptcy proceedings, FEL disclosed in an exchange filing on Wednesday.

The other two companies include-Jindal (India) Limited and GBTL Limited, said Avil Menezes- a court-appointed resolution professional overseeing Future Enterprises Limited's affairs during the bankruptcy proceedings.

Notably, RIL's Reliance Retail is among a list of 49 companies eyeing another Future Group company, Future Retail. Billionaire Gautam Adani is also in the fray to acquire Future Retail. This year, in April, April Moon Retail Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between Flemingo group and Gautam Adani-led Adani Airport Holdings, submitted expressions of interest (EoI).

Future Retail, once India's second-largest retailer, was dragged into bankruptcy proceedings by banks after it defaulted on loans, and its lenders also rejected a $3.4 billion buyout by Reliance amid a legal challenge by Amazon.com Inc. The company was admitted to insolvency in March.

Last month, the interim resolution professional of the debt-ridden company reconstituted the Committee of Creditors and claims of more than ₹12,265 crore have been admitted from both secured and unsecured financial creditors.

The interim resolution professional (IRP) received claims of ₹7,014.83 crore from 22 secured financial creditors of Future Enterprises.

The IRP also received claims of ₹8,880.50 crore from unsecured financial creditors, of ₹5,313.27 crore of claims have been admitted.

In the CoC, Centbank Financial Services Ltd had the highest voting percentage of 27.22%. Union Bank of India and Axis Trustee Services had 10.97% and 10.92% voting percentages, respectively.

Centbank Financial Services Ltd had claimed an amount of ₹3,344.81 crore as due, which has been fully admitted.

Axis Trustee Services has claimed ₹1,341.96 crore, which has been fully admitted.

FEL is going through Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) after the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted a plea from one of its operational creditors in February this year.

The IRP has received claims of ₹2.58 crore from employees, of which it has admitted ₹2.24 crore, FEL said in an exchange filing last month. It also received statutory dues totalling ₹14.75 crore from the state tax department and GST authorities.

The Interim Resolution Professional has "received claims from 803 Unsecured Financial creditors, 22 Secured Financial creditors (other than financial creditors belonging to any class of creditors) and 10 Unsecured Financial creditors (other than financial creditors belonging to any class of creditors) upto 5 June 2023."

Besides, the IRP has also received claims from "42 employees of Corporate Debtor (FEL), 4 Operational Creditors (Government dues) and 161 Operational Creditors (other than ‘Workmen and Employees and Government Dues)" within 90 days of CIRP, the report said.

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