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Reliance began acquiring Future Retail - Crazy Story

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The absolutely crazy story of how Reliance began acquiring Future Retail (Big Bazaar, Nilgiris, fbb and Brand Factory) without actually acquiring it

Okay, so a little backstory. Back in 2020, Future Retail was running out of money. It had copious amounts of debt. Its stores weren’t doing all that well. Its employees were worried they’d lose their jobs and lenders were convinced they weren’t getting their money back.

And then out of the blue, Reliance walked in to acquire the company’s retail assets for about 25,000 crores. It was a lifesaver. The only problem? Amazon blocked the move.

You see they also held an indirect stake in the company, and the shareholding agreement included a clause that explicitly forbade Future Retail from selling its assets to certain “restricted persons” including Reliance.

And with Amazon putting its full weight behind the blockade, the acquisition was never consummated.

For Reliance this was a no-go. They couldn’t play the waiting game, as their acquisition target (Future Retail) shed value each day.

So they decided to do something drastic. Since Future Retail was struggling to come good on all the lease payments (for stores), Reliance offered to transfer the lease to its name.

They then sublet the stores back to Future Retail so that they could continue operating them

At this point, Future Retail was obligated to make the lease payments to Reliance. And since they couldn’t cough up the money, Reliance simply began taking over the stores while also making job offers to employees who previously worked at these facilities.

The mantra was this – If you don’t let us acquire the company, we will simply hollow out Future Retail by taking over one store at a time.

In fact, they even started removing the ubiquitous blue and orange Big Bazaar signage and rebranded it to show intent.

Future Retail meanwhile simply stated that the company was scaling down operations to reduce losses without mentioning Reliance once.

And as for Amazon. Well, they were so livid with the brazen move that there were expected to file a criminal complaint.

But in the end, calmer heads seem to prevail and it looks like everybody is now willing to sit together and hash out their differences. End the saga once and for all.

Crazy story!

Source

https://twitter.com/ShrehithK/status/1500015828...

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Deal Lieutenant Deal Lieutenant
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Future consumer and future retail ke share holders ke liye khushi ki baat hui na?

Celeb Celeb
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not really


We use to work for Future, as RIL is changing everything for them (Future employees)


Less the players less the discounts for customers too 

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Deal Subedar Deal Subedar
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Are bhai jab Railway,  airport,  shipping ports, bade bade govt departments hi ni bache, to Big bazaar konsi khet ki muli h!! 

Finance Mentor Finance Mentor
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future retail is bankrupt company. It has to close or sell case. 

amazon knows it can not own it  as per fdi rules. 

indirectly want  to close it . 

so it’s is ego battle between amazon and jio mart as they fight for supremacy in ever growing grocery online and offline grocery market. 

from future retail employees point – it is better is it survives under whatever name – be it amazon Or jio mart. 

Deal Cadet Deal Cadet
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Ghanta Supremacy! Amazon Fresh since last two years did not upgrade their inventory despite multiple emails. Like no choice of biscuit available on Amazon Fresh. Whereas Bigbasket you get Britannia Biskfarm Sunfeast etc variety of biscuit. Just a basic example. No rice variety other than Basmati, Flipkart Grocery giving better variety. @rak @rak007 @Bk100 @ Common-man

Deal Cadet Deal Cadet
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arey bhai log plz tell, profit club card,  Future pay balance & GV ka kya hoga ? R we able to redeem them to buy groceries? Big Tension 

Benevolent Benevolent
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At my place, only one Bigbazaar is still giving home delivery of online orders. Utilising Futurepay bal through it.

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Benevolent Benevolent
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There are already 3 major players in the market – Reliance, Amazon and Tata (through Bigbasket).

Among others Swiggy and Zomato are there. But soon, even they may be taken over either by the existing 3 or by Adani. 

Deal Cadet Deal Cadet
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With huge money and resources don’t understand why JioMart is pathetic. Where’s Jio is doing very well. And with small army Grofers Bigbasket are doing much better. Even newcomer Flipkart Grocery giving tough competition. @Bk100 @rak @rak007

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Deal Cadet Deal Cadet
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which city

Deal Cadet Deal Cadet
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i m really crying.  My money stuck in profit club

Deal Subedar Deal Subedar
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What if there is auction for big bazaar? I mean those who want ownership they will bid for higher price. 

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