Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail has slapped notices on Future Retail for terminating sub-leases of 950 stores it had taken over previously.
In stock exchange filings, the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group firms said they have been served notices to terminate the lease of 835 Future Retail stores and 112 Future Lifestyle stores.
Future Retail said it has received notices for 835 stores – 342 large format and 493 small-format stores. Its large format stores include Big Bazaar and Fashion @ Big Bazaar (fbb) while the small-format stores comprise Easy Day and Heritage stores.
Last month, Reliance Retail had taken over store spaces for which the Future Group couldn't pay lease rent. These were then sub-let to the Future Group for operation.
“These stores have been historically contributing approx. 55% to 65% of retail revenue operations of the Company. As of now, these stores are not operational for stock and inventory reconciliation," FLF said in its exchange filing.
Meanwhile, Future Lifestyle Fashions also said in a filing that it has received termination notices from the Ambani-backed Reliance Group with regards to 112 stores – 34 outlets of Central and 78 Brand Factory stores of the company.
Future said it is in continuous discussion with Reliance Group to "maintain status quo and for safeguarding the interest of various stakeholders."
In August 2020, Reliance Retail, in a deal worth Rs 24,713 crore, had agreed to take over the retail and logistics business of the Future Group.
This takeover was approved by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
Subsequently, the merger between Reliance Retail and Future Group was halted in October 2020, after Amazon filed a plea in the High Court for enforcement of EA awarded by Singapore International Arbitration Center.
