 "Future group firms complete shareholders, creditors meet over Reliance deal")
Several listed Future group firms, including flagship Future Retail, have completed meetings of their respective shareholders and creditors to consider and approve the Rs 24,713 crore deal to sell their assets to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd despite objections from Amazon.
The entities include Future Retail, Future Enterprises, Future Supply Chain Solutions and Future Lifestyle Fashions.
The meetings were chaired by respective persons appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to conduct the meeting as per its order passed on February 28, said the listed entities in separate regulatory filings.
Two group firms, Future Market Networks and Future Consumer, were yet to inform exchanges about the development.
The meetings were held through video conferencing and the requisite quorum was present, the filings added.
The meetings of shareholders of the listed entities were held on Wednesday.
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As per the NCLT order, meeting of secured creditors of other Future group holding companies, which include Acute Retail Infra, Basuti Sales and Trading, Brattle Foods, Chirag Operating Lease Co, Hare Krishna Operating Lease, Nice Texcot Trading & Agency, Nishta Mall Management, would be held on April 22.
The meetings have been vehemently opposed by US-based e-commerce giant Amazon, which is contesting FRL's deal with RRVL.
In a strongly-worded letter to Kishore Biyani and other promoters of FRL, Amazon last week had said the meetings were "illegal" and such a step would not only breach the 2019 agreements when it made investments into FRL's promoter firm but also violate a Singapore arbitral tribunal's injunction on the sale of retail assets to Reliance.
However, FRL had rejected the allegations and said the meetings are "in compliance" with the directions issued by the NCLT on February 28, 2022, to consider and approve the Scheme of Arrangement filed by various entities which are part of the deal.
In a regulatory update on April 16, FRL said "the said order has been issued by the NCLT, after considering all the facts and information submitted by the parties and specific objections filed by Amazon.Com NV Investment Holdings LLC vide an intervening application and the order dated 15th February 2022 issued by Supreme Court on the same subject matter".
Last week, public sector lender Bank of India (BOI) moved NCLT seeking initiation of insolvency proceedings against FRL and a moratorium over the assets of the Kishore Biyani-led company.
Earlier this month, FRL reported defaulting on payment of Rs 5,322.32 crore to its lenders on account of the ongoing litigations with Amazon and other related issues.
Amazon is opposed to Reliance's August 2020 offer to buy FRL's stores and warehouses for Rs 24,713 crore on grounds that the deal violated its 2019 agreement through which it acquired a 49 per cent stake in FCPL, the promoter entity of FRL, for about Rs 1,500 crore.
It has dragged Future to arbitration and courts to block the Reliance deal.
In late February, Reliance quietly began taking over the rental leases of hundreds of stores once run by FRL and Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd amid lawsuits and arbitration across India and Singapore.