Future Enterprises gets court nod for stake sale in Generali insurance venture

An Indian court has cleared the path for Future Enterprises' stake sale in its general insurance joint venture with Italy's Generali, an exchange filing showed on Monday.

A Mumbai city court late last month put on hold Future's planned sale of its 25% stake in Future Generali India Insurance Company to Generali for 12.52 billion rupees ($162.82 million), after a legal challenge from some bondholders of Future companies that had defaulted. Read full story

IDBI Trusteeship, the group representing the bondholders, said that they had rights mandating Future Enterprises not to dilute its Future Generali stake, according to a source.

But after an appeal from Future Enterprises, the high court on Monday set aside the city court's order, the company said in the filing.

Future, Generali and IDBI Trusteeship did not respond to requests for comment.

Apart from the Generali joint venture, Future Enterprises holds Future Group's investments in textile manufacturing, supply chain and logistics.

The latest order comes as a relief to the Future Group, which is in dire need of funds to pay off a mountain of debt. It has been fighting a legal battle with Amazon.com Inc, which has objected to the sale of its retail assets to rival Reliance Industries.