Future group companies to convene shareholders’ meeting on April 20

Future Group has convened shareholders and creditors meeting in April to seek their approval for the proposed `24,713-crore deal with Reliance Industries (RIL).

The listed firms including Future Enterprises, Future Retail, Future Consumer, Future Lifestyle Fashions and Future Supply Chain will hold the meetings on April 20 and April 21, according to separate stock exchange filings by the companies.

The meetings would be held through videoconferencing and other virtual means.

This follows an order by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on February 28, following a February 15 Supreme Court order, that permitted Future Group companies to convene a shareholders and creditors meeting, they added.

In 2020, Future Group had signed a deal to sell its retail, logistics and warehousing businesses to Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL.

However, the deal is entangled in a legal tussle after the US e-commerce major Amazon opposed the scheme, citing the 2019 agreement it had entered into with Future Group. Amazon, which acquired had a 49% stake in Future Coupons, the promoter entity of Future Retail, for about Rs 1,500 crore, alleged violation of certain terms in the deal signed in 2019.

Earlier during the week, Future Retail said it was committed to getting back the hundreds of stores that were taken over by the Reliance Group and claimed that the “drastic and unilateral action” taken by Reliance had come as a surprise.

In a regulatory filing, FRL said its board has taken strong objection to such action by Reliance Group and has put it on notice to reconsider all other actions initiated over the last few days.

In an earlier filing this month, FRL had said that Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), issued notices to terminate sub-leases of 947 stores of Future group, which it plans to takeover and rebrand them.

The company has received termination notices for 342 large format retail stores – including Big Bazaar, Fashion at Big Bazaar and 493 small format retail stores such as easyday and Heritage stores. Further, another group company Future Lifestyle Fashions said it received termination notices for 34 ‘Central’ stores and 78 ‘Brand Factory’ stores of the company. These stores – LFR, small retail, ‘Central’ and ‘Brand Factory’ – have been contributing about 55%-65% of the company’s total retail revenue from operations.

Reliance was also to also absorb the entire 30,000 staff of Future Retail and Future Lifestyle, including the employees of the remaining stores. Future Retail and Future Lifestyle together has 1,700 stores, including the popular Big Bazaar stores.