Kishore Biyani withdraws resignation as Future Retail executive chairman

Kishore Biyani has withdrawn his resignation as the executive chairman of Future Retail, the company informed in a stock exchange filing late Wednesday. Biyani tendered his resignation from his position as the executive chairman of the company on January 23 this year.

"As disclosed earlier on 25th January 2023, Mr Kishore Biyani had sent a letter tendering his resignation from the position of the "Executive Chairman and Director" of the company on 23rd January 2023. In response to the said letter, the resolution professional of the company had vide mail dated 1st February 2023 objected to the contents of the said letter and the resignation by Mr Biyani and requested him to recall his resignation letter," the company says.

"This is to inform that Mr. Kishor Biyani has now withdrawn his resignation by way of his letter dated 10th March 2023 (received by resolution professional through e-mail on 14th March 2023)," it adds.

In the past few years, Future Group, which once helmed the retail industry in India through their retail stores such as Big Bazaar, Central Mall and Brand Factory, has faced the double whammy of financial debts and legal battle due to default in payment of its debt owing to the second and third wave of Covid-19 pandemic. Future Retail owes ₹6,278 crore debt to the lenders including Union Bank of India, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, Axis Bank and IDBI Bank. Overall, the group companies owe around ₹30,000 crore to the banks.

In August 2020, Future Group entered into a scheme of arrangement with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail to sell its retail, logistics and warehousing business to the latter at a cost of ₹24,713 crore. The deal would have helped Future Group pay its debt as well as payment to the vendors.

However, the deal was opposed by ecommerce giant Amazon, which bought a 49% stake in Future Coupons — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Future Group — in 2019. With this, Amazon held a 3.5% stake in Future Retail. Amazon objected to the Reliance Retail- Future Retail deal citing breach of contract. Last year, the ecommerce giant sought legal action against Future Retail over the issue.

In March last year, Reliance Retail terminated notices for Future Retail’s sub-leased properties and forcefully shut 835 stores across the country. The cash-strapped retailer had said that 55% to 65% of retail revenue operations of the company.

In April last year, Future Group faced another massive blow, after Reliance Industries pulled the plug on ₹24,713 crore proposed takeover of the cash-strapped retailer as the major lenders to Future Group rejected the deal.

In April last year, the Bank of Baroda moved the bankruptcy court against Future Retail to recover ₹3,495 crore default on the one-time restructuring scheme between the bank and the company. Following this, in July, the Mumbai-based NCLT branch began insolvency proceedings against Future Retail and appointed an interim resolution professional over the matter.