Promoters’ holdings in Future Group firms dip

The promoters’ stake in the listed entities of beleaguered Future Group dipped since 2017, falling mostly after 2020, as the companies slowly slipped into a debt trap.

In 2020, Future Group entered into a deal with Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), to sell its retail, logistics and warehousing businesses for Rs 24,713 crore. The group was expecting to use the funds to pare its debt. However, the deal got entangled in legal tussles after US e-commerce major Amazon opposed the scheme, citing a 2019 agreement it had entered into with Future Group.

Since then, there has been a fall in promoters’ holdings across group companies.

For instance, Future Capital Investment held about 37.98% stake in Future Consumer as of March 2017, which rose to 43.03% by the end of FY20, and later fell to 6.19% as of March 2022.

Likewise, Future Enterprises’ stake in Future Consumer fell to nil in March 2022 and March 2020, from 9.02% held as of March 2017, according to data sourced from primeinfobase.com, a corporate data tracker.

Similarly, Central Departmental Stores’ stake in Future Enterprises fell to 10.90% as of March 2022, from 44.59% in March 2020 and 40.12% as of March 2017. Ryka Commercial Ventures, a promoter of Future Lifestyle Fashions, pared its stake to 18.39% as of March 31, 2022, from 37.39% in March 2020 and 54.88% in March 2017, the data showed.

Likewise, Future Corporate Resources (formerly Suhani Trading & Investment Consultants) holds a 4.47% stake in Future Retail as of March 31, 2022. This compares with 33% stake Future Corporate Resources had as of March 2020 and 38.40% as of March 2017. However, Future Corporate Resources’ stake in Future Market Networks was steady at 71.47% in March 2022 compared to two years ago, while it rose from 26.96% in March 2017.

In Future Supply Chain Solutions, Ritvika Trading held 21.95% as of March 2022, compared with 46.75% as of March 2020.

“The dip in stake is mostly due to invoking of pledged shares by lenders and transfer of shares to other holding companies,” an analyst, who used to track certain Future Group companies, said.

The stake of Ashni Biyani, daughter of Kishore Biyani, in Future Retail fell to 0.01% as of March 2022 and March 2020, from 0.02% in March 2017. However, the stake of Avni Biyani, another daughter of Kishore Biyani, in Future Lifestyle Fashions was steady at 0.01% since 2017.

An insolvency petition filed by Bank of India (BoI) before the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is slated to come up for hearing again on Monday.