Future Group shares fall up to 20% as creditors reject Reliance buyout deal

Shares of Future Group companies tumbled on Monday, with many
falling up to 20%, as Reliance Industries said its Rs 24,713-crore deal to acquire
Future Group’s assets cannot be implemented after secured creditors of the
Kishore Biyani-led companies voted against the proposal.

Also Read | Why young Indians are no longer seeking jobs

Flagship firm Future Retail was 5% down to Rs 27.85 on
NSE, Future Enterprises was 9.5% down to Rs 5.70, and Future Consumer was 19.3%
down to Rs 3.95. Future Supply Chain Solutions was 20% down at Rs 37.30, and
Future Lifestyle Fashions was 20% down at Rs 29.40, touching their respective
all-time lows in intra-day trade.

Future Market Networks also plunged 20% to Rs 6.60 in
intra-day trade, close to its record low of Rs 6.28 touched on November 5,
2013.

Also Read | Stock market midday report: Sensex down 478 points, Nifty around 16,960

In a regulatory filing, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)
said that Future Group companies including Future Retail (FRL) and other listed
companies involved in the scheme have intimated the results of the scheme of
arrangement by their respective shareholders and creditors at their respective
meetings.

The majority shareholders and unsecured creditors of
Future Retail, Future Lifestyle Fashions and other group firms have supported
the scheme of amalgamation with Reliance Retail, the company informed on April
2022.

Also Read | How inflation affects RBI’s interest rate policy

But the secured creditors of four out of five Future
Group companies voted against the resolution required to implement Future
Group’s 25,000-crore scheme to sell most of its retail and logistics businesses
to Reliance Group.

On Saturday, all six listed companies of Future group
intimated to the stock exchanges in regulatory filings that the deal with
Reliance is off.

Also Read | Asian stocks, commodities fall, dollar surges as rate hike concerns deepen

“We refer to our earlier communication of 22nd April
2022 wherein voting result of the NCLT-convened meetings of shareholders,
secured creditors and unsecured creditors was communicated,” Future Retail
said in a filing to the stock exchanges on Saturday.

Also Read | Government won’t further dilute stake in LIC post IPO: Report

In August 2020, Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd agreed to
purchase Future Group’s assets and businesses on a slump sale basis for Rs
25,000 crore. However, the deal was not implemented due to legal challenges by
Amazon, which filed cases in the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and the
Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC).