Forty-eight of the forty-nine prospective resolution applicants for Future Retail have made it to the final list, while one dropped out as they did not intend to submit a resolution plan.

Future Retail went into insolvency in July last year and since then has been struggling to get companies interested in its resolution, and this is the third time that the deadline has been extended to file resolution plans. The timeline to complete the insolvency process has also been extended to July 15.

Reliance Retail and Adani Group are still on the list, an indicator of their intent to submit resolution plans.

Seven other entities - and this includes a company that advises on liquidation, a brand and business consultant Harshal Shroff and Darwin Platform Industries - have expressed interest in participating in Future Retail’s resolution process post the deadline for submitting expressions of interest. The resolution professional has sought the opinion of the committee of creditors on this.

Shroff, when contacted by businessline, said that his interest was in TNSI Retail Pvt Ltd, from which the Future Group has obtained franchise rights to operate British travel retail chain WHSmith’s stores in India. Shroff said that he was interested in buying out the leases and operating the brand. 

Meanwhile, the resolution professional also obtained approval from the National Company Law Tribunal to take legal remedies to gain access to the stores of Future Retail. While many of the stores have been taken over by the Reliance Industries group by buying out the leases, some other stores have been forcibly seized by their landlords as the company has not been able to pay rent on them.

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