Aug 28, 2020
India’s Future Enterprises Ltd finally is all set to complete the sale of the group’s retail business to Reliance Industries Ltd’s retail arm on Saturday the 29th August 2020.
The concerned deal has been reportedly in works for months now, is valued at about Rs. 290-300 billion ($3.92-$4.06 billion), according to various market analysis. According to the reliance sources, Reliance will take on Future Group’s debt and liabilities and pick up a minority stake in its consumer arm too.
Owned by India’s “Father of Modern Retailing”, Kishore Biyani, Future Group is home to many supermarket chains of Big Bazaar, upmarket food stores FoodHall, and lofty clothing chain named Brand Factory.
The Group will merge with 5 mentioned units across grocery, apparel, supply chain and the consumer business into Future Enterprises, which will then hive off all retail assets and sell them to Reliance as a single unit, cited the source.
Reliance, led by Mukesh Ambani, has been diversifying its business and ramping up a retail presence, where it has launched an online grocery service JioMart in May, a move matching Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc Ltd’s Flipkart in India, perceiving a key growth market for e-commerce platform.
Reliance is also in discussions to buy online furniture company Urban Ladder and milk delivery startup called Milkbasket to strengthen its e-commerce business. Shares in Future Enterprises Ltd jumped 5% and hit an upper price limit.