/
•
•
Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Future Group is on the clock with a debt problem.
Editor's note: This is not the first time India’s modern retail pioneer—Future Group founder and CEO Kishore Biyani—has staked his kingdom. Just eight years back, he landed in enough of a tight spot that he had to sell parts of a business empire that he’d painstakingly built over decades. This time around too, he doubled down his bets in business by pledging ownership equity at a time when his companies are loaded with debt. The man is now, miraculously, just a few steps away from losing control. On 30 March, what can only be qualified as the hand of god saved Kishore Biyani. In an unprecedented move, the Mumbai High Court restrained IDBI Trusteeship from selling shares of the Rs 21,288 crore Future Retail Ltd, which was pledged to the lender as collateral for a loan Biyani had taken. The court judgement caught legal pundits by surprise as it went against all tenets of free markets. If IDBI had sold those shares, it may well have hastened a huge crisis for Biyani and he could have ended up losing his company. Now, …
Future Group is on the clock with a debt problem.
Editor's note: This is not the first time India’s modern retail pioneer—Future Group founder and CEO Kishore Biyani—has staked his kingdom. Just eight years back, he landed in enough of a tight spot that he had to sell parts of a business empire that he’d painstakingly built over decades. This time around too, he doubled down his bets in business by pledging ownership equity at a time when his companies are loaded with debt. The man is now, miraculously, just a few steps away from losing control. On 30 March, what can only be qualified as the hand of god saved Kishore Biyani. In an unprecedented move, the Mumbai High Court restrained IDBI Trusteeship from selling shares of the Rs 21,288 crore Future Retail Ltd, which was pledged to the lender as collateral for a loan Biyani had taken. The court judgement caught legal pundits by surprise as it went against all tenets of free markets. If IDBI had sold those shares, it may well have hastened a huge crisis for Biyani and he could have ended up losing his company. Now, …
The retailer has shrunk operations to fix its loss-making vertical. But a reduced presence risks hurting volumes in a segment dominated by Blinkit and Instamart.
After building and then losing India’s biggest retail empire, Kishore Biyani and family are now scripting a discreet retail comeback with departmental store Broadway. Can they get the economics right this time around?
Brands are struggling amid plunging prices of lab-grown diamonds, poor margins, intense competition, shaky global demand and a domestic market where tradition continues to shape buying decisions.
The retailer has shrunk operations to fix its loss-making vertical. But a reduced presence risks hurting volumes in a segment dominated by Blinkit and Instamart.
After building and then losing India’s biggest retail empire, Kishore Biyani and family are now scripting a discreet retail comeback with departmental store Broadway. Can they get the economics right this time around?
Brands are struggling amid plunging prices of lab-grown diamonds, poor margins, intense competition, shaky global demand and a domestic market where tradition continues to shape buying decisions.
