Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, yesterday announced acquiring the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses of the Future Group for ₹24,713 crore. The former will now have access to nearly 1,800 stores across the group’s Big Bazaar, FBB, Easyday, Central, Foodhall formats spread across 420 cities across India.
Future Group is merging its grocery, apparel, supply chain and the consumer businesses into Future Enterprises Limited (FEL).The retail and wholesale undertaking of Future Group will be transferred to Reliance Retail and Fashion Lifestyle Limited (RRFLL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of RRVL. The logistics and warehousing undertaking will be transferred to RRVL directly.
“With this transaction, we are pleased to provide a home to the renowned formats and brands of Future Group as well as preserve its business ecosystem, which have played an important role in the evolution of modern retail in India,” said Isha Ambani, director, Reliance Retail.
“As a result of this reorganisation and transaction, Future Group will achieve a holistic solution to the challenges that have been caused by COVID and the macro economic environment. This transaction takes into account the interest of all its stakeholders including lenders, shareholders, creditors, suppliers and employees giving continuity to all its businesses”, said Kishore Biyani, group chief executive officer of the Future Group. After this transaction, FEL, however, will retain the manufacturing and distribution of FMCG goods and integrated fashion sourcing and manufacturing business and its insurance joint ventures (JVs) with Generali and JVs with NTC Mills.These businesses will further benefit from supply agreement with RRFLL.
The decks for the long pending deal were cleared earlier this week when Future Retail paid $14 million (around ₹103 crore) as interest on its USD notes, according to a regulatory filing. The company has paid the interest amount of $14 million due on the 5.6 per cent senior secured notes due 2025 (USD notes) after a grace period of 30 days, Future Retail said in the filing.
The company on July 22 had informed the exchanges that it had missed the payment of interest on the USD notes on account of liquidity crunch.
