Lenders to Kishore Biyani’s Future Enterprises (FEL) have voted to restart the bidding process, seeking better valuations for the company that owes creditors more than ₹13,000 crore. The voting on seeking fresh expressions of interest (EoIs) that started on December 4 ended on Tuesday.
After the results are made official on Wednesday, resolution professional (RP) Avil Menezes is likely to formally seek fresh EoIs from prospective bidders as early as next week, people aware of the process said.
“Now that the vote is over, the process will move forward. Lenders will call for EoIs later this month with the bids likely to come in January,” one of them said.
Menezes did not reply to an email seeking comment as of press time on Tuesday. Lenders led by Central Bank of India and its arm CentBank Financial Services had last month rejected Kolkata-based steel tubes and pipes maker Jindal (India)’s offer of ₹301 crore, which amounted to just above 2% recovery for the total admitted claims of ₹13,540 crore of creditors.
“Lenders want to restart the whole process because they think they can get better valuations and there is time in hand,” said a second person familiar with the process. Jindal (India) was the sole bidder for debt-laden FEL after a bidding process that lasted more than eight months. The last date of submitting plans was on November 10. FEL is the second largest debt pile from the defunct retail giant Future Group.Reliance Retail, which had initially expressed interest and sought more time to submit a resolution plan, did not do so, people familiar with the process said.
FEL used to develop, own and lease retail infrastructure for Future Group. It also held the group’s investments in subsidiaries and joint ventures including insurance, textile manufacturing, supply chain, and logistics.
Lenders are hoping for better valuations for the company because of the stakes it holds in the growing insurance ventures.
In May last year, before FEL was admitted to the insolvency process, banks had managed to recover a cumulative ₹1,266 crore from FEL after the group completed the sale of the general insurance business to its Italian partner Assicurazioni Generali. The money was divided among banks in the proportion of their debt as part of the restructuring plan initiated in 2021. Banks are also entitled to the proceeds from Future’s remaining 26% stake in Future Generali India Insurance Co. FEL also holds a residual stake in Future Generali India Life (FGIL) after Generali hiked its stake to above 70% last year.
Both these insurance companies, which are well established, could be a major attraction for bidders, lenders feel.
