Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Retail Ventures, Jindal (India) Ltd, and Donear Industries-owned textile maker GBTL Ltd have submitted a resolution plan for bankrupt Future Enterprise Limited under the corporate insolvency process.

On February 27, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted Future Enterprise, founded by Kishore Biyani and owned by the Future Group, for corporate insolvency.

The Mumbai bench of NCLT ordered the “commencement of corporate insolvency resolution process”, where the firm will be auctioned off to recover unpaid dues.

Several trusteeship companies have filed for claims, including Centbank Financial Services, has filed the biggest claim of Rs 3,344 crore, Axis Trustee Services for Rs 1,341 crore, and Vistra ITCL (India) for Rs 210 crore.

In an exchange filing last month, Future Enterprise Lts said the Interim Resolution Professional had received claims for Rs 2.58 crore from employees, of which it has admitted Rs 2.24 crore. It also received statutory dues totalling Rs 14.75 crore from the state tax department and GST authorities.

The company said, “The Interim Resolution Professional has received claims from 803 Unsecured Financial creditors, 22 Secured Financial creditors (other than financial creditors belonging to any class of creditors) and 10 Unsecured Financial creditors (other than financial creditors belonging to any class of creditors) up to June 5 2023,”.

Four of the Kishor Biyani-controlled Future Group companies are undergoing insolvency proceedings. Future Enterprise Ltd, Future Retail Ltd, Future Lifestyles Fashion Ltd and Future Supply Chain Ltd are at different stages of insolvency proceedings.

The Future Group suffered a major setback due to the nationwide lockdown announced in 2020 to curb the spread of Covid-19. This resulted in malls closing for several months and affected their sales.

Following this, the Group signed a deal with Reliance Industries-linked subsidiaries to take over the entire business in a multi-stage transaction. The deal was hit by a string of litigation by e-commerce giant Amazon.com claiming a violation of its shareholder agreement with the company.

In March 2022, Reliance Industries Limited took over 900 Future Retail stores for non-payment of rent. In April last year, most secured lenders rejected the deal with Reliance Industries. After that, the Future Group firms were admitted for insolvency proceedings.