PremiumMumbai: Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has extended the long-stop date for completion of its ₹24713 crore deal with Kishore Biyani's Future Group by another six months as the latter is engaged in a legal battle with Amazon.
Long stop refers to a timeframe in which all the conditions precedent for deal are met for the transaction to be completed. The transaction was to be completed on 31 March.
Also Read | Why Kerala may not swing this time round
RRVL had last August entered into an arrangement to buy Future Group's retail assets on a slump sale basis for ₹24713 crore.
"Pursuant to the provisions of scheme and other transaction documents executive in relation thereto, RRVL has in exercise of the right provided thereunder, extended the timeline for Long Stop Date from March 31, 2021 to September 30, 2021," Future Enterprises said in a statement to the exchanges.
The deal is pending before the Supreme Court which has scheduled a hearing on 27 April.
On 18 March, the Delhi high court had imposed a monetary penalty on Future Group for breaching an arbitration order passed by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre in October on a plea by Amazon.com Inc. The court also ordered the attachment of Biyani’s assets and served a show-cause on the group for possible detention of Biyani.
However, on 22 March, a division bench of the Delhi high court granted Future Group’s Biyani a reprieve from a single-judge order that froze his assets and restrained the group he founded from taking any steps to sell its assets to RIL.
The cash-strapped Future Group is trying to expedite the deal with Reliance Industries to pay creditors and save the Big Bazaar retail chain from a possible collapse.
