Leading apparel trade body has urged Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to clear RIL-Future deal so that vendors and lenders of Future Group can recover their payments.
A quick resolution might help them recover about Rs. 6,000 crore in dues of apparel and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies mainly, pending almost a year.
The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI) has written a letter to SEBI in this regard.
It is worth mentioning here that US-based online retail giant Amazon, which owns 49 per cent in Future Coupons Pvt. Ltd., a Future Group holding company, objected to the deal and approached the arbitration court in Singapore.
The Amazon asked SEBI to suspend its review of the deal and not grant it a no-objection certificate, since the transaction is under dispute in the Delhi High Court.
“Almost all vendors and lenders will be able to recover their dues from Future Group over a period of time after successful completion of the transaction,” CMAI’s letter reads.
The transaction approval has taken longer than expected and strained their finances completely. Even after the approval, it will take another 3-4 months to complete the transaction and to get dues back.
Last year in August it was announced that Reliance Retail Ventures has agreed to buy the retail assets of Future Group on a slump sale basis for about Rs. 25,000 crore. As a part of the deal, Reliance had also agreed to take vendor liabilities of Rs. 6,300 crore.
The Future Group that had debt of nearly Rs. 12,000 crore approached several investors after lenders exerted pressure and threatened to revoke promoter pledged shares.
