” NCLT gives nod to creditors, shareholders of Reliance Retail to hold meetings for proposed Future Group deal*

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Monday allowed the creditors and shareholders of Reliance Retail Ventures to hold meetings to seek approval for the company’s proposed Rs 24,700 crore deal with the Future Group.

The Mumbai bench of NCLT, led by Suchitra Kanuparthi, allowed the application by Reliance Retail’s creditors and shareholders to convene meetings to seek approval for the deal.

NCLT’s detailed order in the matter is awaited.

Reliance Retail Ventures is a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries.

On June 22, the tribunal had reserved its order on Reliance Retail’s plea to seek consensus of the shareholders on the company’s deal with Future Group.

Earlier, on a similar petition by the Future Group, the NCLT had allowed holding meetings of the creditors and shareholders for seeking approval for the transaction.

On October 1, 2021, Reliance Retail extended the long-stop date for the completion of its deal with Kishore Biyani-led Future Group by another six months to March 2022, due to the delays ensuing from the ongoing legal battle with the US-based Amazon.

Long Stop, an established practice in mergers and acquisitions, is a timeframe in which parties agree on which all the conditions precedent for a transaction need to be fulfilled and the transaction completed.

Singapore International Arbitration Centre has concluded hearing of the matter between Amazon and Future Group and has reserved its final order.