Bidding Frenzy: Future Retail Draws Interest from Scrap Dealers and Individual Investors
12 April 2023, Mumbai
A total of 49 players have submitted expressions of interest (EoIs) for Future Retail Limited, including Reliance Retail, WH Smith, JC Flowers, Jindal Power, and a Gordon Brothers-led international consortium. The other players that have submitted EoIs include some scrap dealer firms and individual investors like Harsha Vardhan Reddy, according to sources.
This comes after the first round of EoIs failed to attract enough participants, prompting to invite interested parties to formally express their interest again.
Future Retail, which has a debt of around Rs 21,000 crore, is known for its popular Big Bazaar brand of large and small format stores. It also operates a subsidiary that runs close to 100 stores under the WH Smith brand, in addition to a small number of stores under the Foodhall brand.
The company was admitted for insolvency proceedings after it failed to meet its loan obligations. Reliance Industries had made an offer to acquire the company for Rs. 24,713 crore, but the deal fell through.
The increased competition in the bidding process could improve prospects for lenders to recover their dues.
