Adani Group, Reliance bid for Future Retail acquisition

Adani Group and Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd. are reportedly interested in acquiring Future Retail. They were said to be among the 49 companies that have placed their bids for the deal.

April Moon Retail Private Ltd., which is a joint venture between Flemingo Group and Adani Airport Holdings, has submitted its Expression of Interest (EIO) once again. This confirmed that Indian billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani are planning to further expand their businesses through the acquisition of Future Retail which is currently in financial trouble.

The bids of Reliance and the Adani Group were revealed earlier this week. As per Reuters, the bids were confirmed via the recent exchange filing by Future Retail.

Some other companies that have forwarded their EOIs are India's Jindal Power Ltd., J.C. Flowers Asset Reconstruction, London-based retailer WH Smith (a consortium led by Gordon Brothers US-based restructuring company), and Harsha Vardhan Reddy, an individual investor.

The submissions of the EIOs followed after Future Retail's court-appointed resolution professional carried out a second round of bids. This was done because the first one did not attract enough bidding participants.

NDTV reported that it was on March 23 when creditors of Future Retail sent out invitations for new EOIs since they failed to bring a resolution plan in more than four months. In the first round, only 11 bidders submitted their EOIs, and even at that time, Reliance Retail and April Moon Retail have participated already, so this is their second.

Future Retail was once the second largest retailer in India; however, it was unfortunately got dragged into bankruptcy by financial institutions after it defaulted on loans. On top of this, its lenders did not approve a $3.4 billion acquisition deal being offered by Reliance, probably because the sale price is not enough for the takeover that will include 19 Future Retail companies.