“Cover Story is mortgaged to Edelweiss Asset Management which is one of the lenders and owes around Rs 600 crore to FLF,” one said. “Jealous 21 and aLL are being sold directly by FLF to reduce debt and are part of a larger divestiture plan that includes the sale of a few other brands.”
Cover Story was launched six years ago to tackle global fast fashion brands Zara and H&M, while aLL is aimed at the plus size market. Women’s clothing brand Jealous 21 competes with brands such as Levi’s and Forever 21.
GOAT Brands and FLF declined to comment while questions to Mensa Brands, Reliance Retail and Edelweiss went unanswered.
FRL first debtor of the group
FLF, owner of the Central department store chain and the Brand Factory discount store format, is still not subject to insolvency proceedings, unlike (FRL) and , which have not repaid their loans and have been admitted to bankruptcy court.
FRL, which owns Big Bazaar and Easyday, is the largest debtor in the group with around Rs 14,000 crore in dues while FLF has a debt of around Rs 2,200 crore with lenders including
and Azim Premji Trust. FLF is planning a debt overhaul by selling a few fashion brands to raise Rs 1,000 crore.
Future Group has nearly 600 stores, including 11 central stores, 30 Brand Factory and 190 exclusive outlets for its own brands such as Ancestry, Indigo Nation, Scullers and Urbana managed by FLF.
This is after Reliance took over more than 200 Big Bazaar stores, 34 central stores and 78 Brand Factory outlets after Future Group defaulted on lease renewal payments in April.
“While Future Group owns clothing brands as well as retail chains, management is not looking to run the business for long and the idea is to just monetize assets to clear debts,” Abhijit said. Kundu, Vice President, Research, Consumer and Retail, Antiques Brokerage.
four months ago,
() canceled an agreement to purchase the assets of Future Group following the rejection of the proposal by a majority of secured lenders to FRL and FLF. The Rs 24,713 crore acquisition plan was announced in 2020 but led to a lengthy legal battle between Amazon and Future Group in the Supreme Court as well as an arbitration tribunal in Singapore.
