Future Retail Suspends Supermarket Operations As Reliance Plans Takeover
Future Retail Limited, India's second-largest retailer, suspended most of its online and offline operations as stores remained shut on Sunday, after rival Reliance bid to take over its flagship supermarkets for missed lease payments.
Reliance Industries Limited will rebrand the Future stores after the company failed to make payments for them to Reliance, sources told Reuters on Saturday, closing most outlets of the popular Big Bazaar chain.
Though Future has more than 1,700 outlets, all the 200 stores that Reliance will rebrand as its own will be Big Bazaars, which was started around two decades ago by Kishore Biyani, dubbed as India's retail king for transforming the sector.
Future and Reliance did not respond to requests for comment. Future told stock exchanges on Saturday the company was "scaling down its operations."
Future's stores across India remained shut across India as Reliance did stock-taking ahead of a rebranding, people familiar with the plans said.
"We regret to inform you that currently stores are non-operational for 2 days," Big Bazaar told a Twitter user who complained about a closure.
Future's e-commerce mobile app and website were also not available for online ordering.
Reliance's move assumes significance as it follows failed efforts since 2020 to close a $3.4 billion deal to acquire the retail assets of Future, whose partner Amazon.com Inc has blocked the transaction by citing violation of contracts. Future denies any wrongdoing.
Reliance had transferred leases of some stores of debt-laden Future to its name and sublet them to Future, but is now taking over as Future did not make payments. Reliance has offered store staff jobs on existing terms.
"All employees, consumers, and everyone in India - we are all attached to the Big Bazaar brand," a Big Bazaar employee on Sunday. "So you feel sad this is happening."
In blocking the Future-Reliance deal, Amazon has long argued that Future violated the terms of a 2019 deal in which the USÂ giant invested $200 million in the Indian company. Amazon's position has been backed so far by a Singapore arbitrator and Indian courts.
-
Talking Points This Week: Leadership Shock At Nvidia, Earnings Strength, And The Fog Over Hormuz
The Anthropic IPO pricing and first trading day, Nvidia's upcoming earnings, and any fresh signals from Iran will set the tone for the following week.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
