Future Retail (FRL) said it is “committed” to reversal of takeover of its stores by Reliance Retail and will initiate all such action as may be necessary to seek value adjustments. The Kishore Biyani-led firm also said the action of the Reliance Group has come as a “surprise” to it.
Moreover, the action of taking possession of its stores has “complicated” the positive scenario which had started building up after a CCI order in December 2021, FRL said in aregulatory filing.
In February, Reliance Retail took over the operations of at least 300 stores of FRL and offered jobs to its employees after the group failed to make lease payments to landlords.
“FRL’s board has taken strong objection to of such action by Reliance and has put the group to notice to reconsider all other actions initiated over the last few days,” it added. FRL’s board has also notified Reliance that assets such as store fixtures, store infrastructure, merchandise, inventory, etc belonging to FRL and lying inside these stores are hypothecated as security in favour of FRL’s lenders. “The board has called upon Reliance to ensure that the possession of the secured assets is not transferred and retained unharmed for the benefit of lenders,” it added.
According to FRL, there have been several media reports and public notices issued by Amazon misreporting that FRL has handed over its retail assets to Reliance in breach of orders of arbitration tribunal of SIAC and the SC.
