With its deal to acquire Future Retail called off, Reliance is stuck with empty stores, freshly hired personnel, over Rs 3,000 crore in liabilities and shattered dreams.
The 18-month battle over the biggest merger and acquisition in India’s modern retail came to an abrupt end last Saturday and the optics suggest that Reliance Industries Ltd has emerged as the only winner in the entire saga.
Future Retail Ltd, the flagship of the Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group, which Reliance made a bid to acquire along with other assets in September 2020 for Rs 24,713 crore, is a step closer to being declared bankrupt. The world’s largest e-commerce player Amazon will also stand to lose the Rs 1,431 crore it invested in the group in 2019.
The creditors, mostly …
Surendar helps lead the newsroom at The Morning Context as executive editor. Over the years, Surendar has worked in industries from pharmaceuticals to diamonds, as well as a stint as an equity analyst. In his long career as a business journalist, he has led teams at The Times of India, India Today and Fortune India. He was part of the founding team at Forbes India and interned at and published in The Times, London.
Executive Editor
surendar@mailtmc.com
Mumbai
Advait is a financial journalist and a former writer at The Morning Context. Here, he wrote on India’s banks, the wider financial services industry and the fintech ecosystem. He has previously worked with the Economic and Political Weekly, Business Standard, BloombergQuint and MediaNama, where he covered everything from the Reserve Bank of India to fintech policy.
Writer
advait@mailtmc.com
Mumbai