The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal on Monday allowed Future Retail Ltd. to convene meetings of its creditors and shareholders, the first step in its ultimate sale to Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.
The schedule of the meetings will be shortly informed, Future Retail said in an exchange filing.
The tribunal also dismissed Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC's application challenging the conduct of the shareholders' meet, according to Future Retail's filing.
Amazon's confirmation on this development is awaited. A detailed copy of the NCLT order is not yet available.
In September last year, the tribunal had allowed Future Retail to convene meetings of its shareholders and creditors to vote on consolidation of its entities.
The meetings are to seek approval for the scheme of arrangement between 20 Future Group entities, including six listed companies, with Reliance Retail Ventures, and Reliance Retail and Fashion Lifestyle Ltd. They were scheduled for Nov. 9 and 10 last year.
Subsequently, Future Retail approached the tribunal seeking to defer the meetings to between Nov. 26 and Nov. 30.
The company had cited the volume of notices to be sent to shareholders as the key reason. The company's creditors, too, had supported the request at the time.
Objecting to Future Retail's application, Amazon had stated that the Supreme Court had directed statutory bodies such as NCLT, Securities and Exchange Board of India, and Competition Commission of India to refrain from passing any final orders. Therefore, the shareholders' and creditors' meets cannot be held, Amazon had said.
Instead of granting Future Retail a deferment, the tribunal had suspended the meetings till the matter was finally heard.
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