Future Retail gets time till May 12 to file reply on insolvency plea

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday gave crisis-hit Future Retail Ltd (FRL) time till May 12 to submit its reply to the insolvency petition filed against the company by Bank of India.

Last week, Bank of India had moved the tribunal seeking to initiate insolvency resolution proceedings against FRL, which has defaulted on loan repayments.

The NCLT hearing on Thursday also came against the backdrop of Reliance calling off its proposed Rs 24,713 crore-deal with Future Group after secured creditors voted against it.

Under the deal, which was announced in August 2020, Future Group was to sell 19 companies operating in retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing segments to Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL).

During the hearing, Gaurav Joshi, representing FRL, requested the tribunal for more time to file the reply to the petition.

Accordingly, the Mumbai-bench of the NCLT headed by Pradeep Narhari Deshmukh and Shyam Babu Gautam postponed the matter for further hearing to May 12.

FRL has defaulted on payment of Rs 5,322.32 crore to its lenders on account of the ongoing litigations with e-commerce major Amazon and other related issues.

Bank of India, which has filed the insolvency petition, is the lead banker in the consortium of lenders of FRL.

Last month, the lender  through a public notice claimed its charge over the assets of FRL and warned the public against dealing with assets of the Kishore Biyani-led Future group firm.

Several Future Group companies, including FRL, had entered into agreements with their respective lenders in terms of the RBI circular dated August 6, 2020, in which a resolution framework for COVID-related stress was announced.

Future Group's deal with Reliance was opposed by Amazon and litigation is going on at various forums.