The electronic voting process for the shareholders of debt-ridden Future Retail Ltd (FRL) ended on Tuesday evening ahead of the meetings of the shareholders and creditors to approve the sale of the company’s retail assets to Reliance Retail despite opposition from Amazon and an insolvency petition from its lenders.

According to an addendum notice that the company had submitted to the BSE, FRL’s remote e-voting for its equity shareholders started last week on Saturday morning and was scheduled to end at 5 pm on Tuesday.

The voting was to seek approval for the Rs 24,713 crore deal to sell the Future group’s retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing segments to Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL).

FRL has scheduled the meetings of equity shareholders, secured creditors and unsecured creditors of the company on April 20 and 21, 2022, respectively, according to the directions of the Mumbai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Amazon warning

The meetings have been vehemently opposed by Amazon, which is contesting FRL’s deal with RRVL.

In a strongly worded letter to Kishore Biyani and other promoters of FRL, Amazon, last week, said it was “illegal” and such a step would not only breach 2019 agreements when it made investments into FRL’s promoter firm but also violate a Singapore arbitral tribunal’s injunction on the sale of retail assets to Reliance.

However, FRL had rejected the allegations and said the meetings are “in compliance of the directions” issued by the NCLT on February 28, 2022 to consider and approve the Scheme of Arrangement filed by various entities, who are part of the deal.