RIL deal: Future Group companies will convene a meeting of shareholders, creditors

The meetings will take place virtually through video conferencing and other audio-visual means.

The move comes after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) allowed group companies to hold a meeting of their shareholders and creditors for their approval for the overall plan of arrangement between Future and Reliance.

The tribunal had also dismissed a plea by e-commerce major Amazon challenging Future Group’s deal with Reliance Retail, part of oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries.

The ongoing legal battle between Future Group and Amazon is over the sale of Future’s retail assets to Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd.

Last year, the NCLT had stayed the meeting of shareholders and creditors, saying no meeting would be held till further orders of the tribunal.

Essentially, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), an arm of Reliance Industries, had proposed a deal to acquire Future Group’s entire retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses.

The sale of the asset is being opposed by Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC, arguing that its investment 1,400 crore in Future Coupons, which is one of the promoters of Future Retail, allows it to block the sale of assets to Amazon’s competitors.

Recently, Future Retail accused Reliance Industries of forcibly taking over stores and said it did not hand over any retail units to the oil-to-telecom conglomerate.

Future – which has over 1,700 outlets, including the popular Big Bazaar store – has been unable to make lease payments for most of its outlets.

With the landlord insisting on payment or the closure of the shops, Reliance transferred the leases of some stores to its name and sublet them to Future to operate the stores. It offered jobs to all 30,000 employees of Future Retail.

Further, most of the inventory at these stores was being supplied by Reliance JioMart as cash-strapped FRL could not clear the dues to the existing suppliers.