Bid deadline for India's Future Retail extended due to low interest -sources

Future Enterprises

21/10/2022 09:44

By Nupur Anand
       MUMBAI, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The resolution professional
for India's debt-laden Future Retail Ltd  FRTL.NS  has extended
the deadline for potential buyers to submit their bids for the
retailer, due to tepid interest, two banking sources said on
Friday.
    The deadline had ended on Oct. 20, but has been extended to
Nov. 3, according to an updated document released by the
resolution professional (RP).
    "There were hardly any bids and none from any significant
ones so it has been decided that we should allow more time to
see if more bids come in," said a senior executive at a state
lender that has exposure to the Future group.
    Future Retail's RP did not immediately respond to an email
seeking comment.
    Future Group's flagship retail unit, Future Retail was once
the country's second-largest retailer but has been in bankruptcy
proceedings after it defaulted on loans and its lenders rejected
a $3.4 billion sale of its assets to market leader Reliance
Industries  RELI.NS .
    The company's lenders had submitted loan claims of about
210.58 billion rupees ($2.55 billion) in August, under the
ongoing insolvency process. The lead lenders include Bank of
India  BOI.NS  and State Bank of India  SBI.NS .
    A total of 33 banks, including Bank of New York Mellon
 BK.N , HDFC Bank  HDBK.NS  and Barclays Bank Plc  BARC.L  among
others, had filed the claims.
    Banks had rejected Future's $3.4 billion sale of its retail
assets earlier this year amid a legal challenge by U.S.
e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O , which has accused
Future of violating certain contracts by dealing with Reliance,
run by one of India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2WK0N9
 
 ($1 = 82.6950 Indian rupees)
 (Reporting by Nupur Anand; Editing by Savio D'Souza)
 ((Nupur.Anand@thomsonreuters.com; +9122 68414388;))