Future Retail bankruptcy: SpaceMantra emerges as the only bidder, claims report

SpaceMantra has emerged as the only bidder interested in taking over all the assets of Future Retail. This surfaced after the bids for the defunct retailer were opened on Thursday, a report in The Economic Times said.

SpaceMantra, which is promoted by former NBCC chairman Anoop Kumar Mittal, has offered Rs 550 crore for the takeover deal. But the amount is less than 3 per cent of the total outstanding dues of Rs 19,200 crore of financial creditors. SpaceMantra, promoted by Mittal and Ashish Agarwal, is registered as a retailer of building material.

The creditors have also received five other much smaller bids for different parts of the retailer, the report quoted sources aware of the developments. The bids will now be given to process advisor Alvarez & Marsal for evaluation.

SpaceMantra’s plan involves a payment of Rs 550 crore after completing the sale of the assets within six months of handing over the company. But, according to the source, if the sale of assets doesn't materialise, the company will reserve the right to give back the asset to the lenders.

Earlier, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail and Gautam Adani-led Adani Group backed out of the race to bid for Future Retail, which was referred to the insolvency tribunal last April.

The six highest bidders were SpaceMantra, Pinnacle Air, Palgun Tech LLC, Lehar Solutions, Goodwill Furniture and Sarvabhishta e-waste management.  Adani Group and Reliance Retail backed out due to steep valuation of the Future Group assets that are under the hammer.

According to sources familiar with the developments, Reliance Group was keen on purchasing several assets from whatever is left of the Future Group after the former took control of most of its prominent physical retail assets.

Kishore Biyani-founded Future Group continues to own assets like the Future Retail’s flagship brand Big Bazaar.

Sources said Reliance Group was interested in purchasing the brand along with its sister retail chain brands like fbb, CENTRAL, aLL and Brand Factory.

Adani Group, on the other hand, had expressed its interests in several Future Group assets through one of its real estate arms but changed its plans later.

Last month, Future Retail received approval from the bankruptcy court to extend the date to complete its resolution process by another 90 days to July 15. The earlier deadline was April 16.

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) granted the exclusion of 90 days from the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process, the company said in a stock exchange update.

On March 23, creditors of FRL invited new Expressions of Interest (EoIs) whereby prospective buyers can bid for the debt-ridden firm "as a going concern or individual cluster or a combination of clusters of its assets", as it failed to attract a resolution plan in more than four months.

On April 10, Future Retail said it has received 49 expressions of interest from prospective resolution applicants, including from Reliance Industries, Adani Group and Jindal Power, to acquire its assets through the ongoing insolvency process.

Following FRL lenders invited fresh bids, Mukesh Ambani expressed his interest through Reliance Retail Ventures, the holding company of all its retail businesses, and Adani Group expressed its interest through April Moon Retail, which is a joint venture between Adani Airports and Flemingo Group.

Future Retail, with famous brands like Big Bazaar, Easyday, and Foodhall under its belt, operated multiple retail formats in both the hypermarket supermarket and home segments. At its peak, Future Retail was operating more than 1,500 outlets in nearly 430 cities.

The Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) was initiated against FRL by its lender Bank of India following loan defaults. Under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, EoI was invited from prospective bidders on October 4, 2022.

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