Debt-ridden Future Enterprises Ltd said an operational creditor of the company has filed a plea before the National Company Law Tribunal to initiate insolvency proceedings against it. Future Enterprises Ltd (FEL), part of the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group, is facing difficulties like other firms of the group.
“Foresight Innovations Private Limited… Operational Creditors of the Company had filed an application under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 for an alleged default amount of Rs. 1.58 crore -with National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench (NCLT),” Future Enterprises said in a regulatory filing.
The next date of hearing is 26 August, 2022, it added.
Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) gives power to operational creditors of a company to initiate corporate insolvency resolution process in case of a default.
On Tuesday, its Non-Executive Director Chandrapraksh Toshniwal resigned from the board of directors.
FEL was part of the 19 group companies operating in retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing segments which were supposed to be transferred to Reliance Retail as part of a ₹24,713-crore deal announced in August 2020.
The deal was called off by the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd in April.
It had recently committed several defaults on payment of interest on its several non-convertible debentures.
The NCLT has already initiated insolvency proceedings against Future Group’s flagship firm Future Retail Ltd.
Meanwhile, E-commerce major Amazon has moved Supreme Court against an order of the NCLAT, which upheld fair trade regulator CCI’s decision to suspend its approval for investment in a Future Group company.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on June 13 rejected Amazon’s plea challenging the decision of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to suspend the approval for the e-commerce major’s deal with Future Coupons and directed the company to pay over ₹200 crore penalty imposed on it, within next 45 days.
The said order has now been challenged by Amazon before the apex court. In its petition, a copy of which has been seen by PTI, the e-commerce major has said the NCLAT order has several glaring defects and suffers from a total non-application of mind by the appellate tribunal.
The matter is expected to be listed next week before the apex court. In December last year, the CCI suspended the approval given by it in 2019 for Amazon’s deal to acquire a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL).
The regulator had said that Amazon suppressed information while seeking clearances for the transaction back then and also slapped a fine of ₹202 crore on the company.
This includes a ₹200 crore penalty for Amazon to notify the combination in the requisite terms and two penalties of ₹1 crore each for suppressing the actual scope and purpose of the combination.
The CCI order was challenged by Amazon before the NCLAT, an appellate authority over the fair trade regulator, which in turn upheld the findings.
The NCLAT said the e-commerce major “has not made full, whole, forthright and frank disclosures of relevant materials and had furnished only limited details/disclosures, pertaining to its `acquiring strategic rights and interests’ over `FRL (Future Retail Ltd)” and executing the commercial contract.
“In this regard, this appellate tribunal is in complete agreement with the view arrived at by the first respondent (CCI)… “, NCLAT had said.