Kishore Biyani on Promoter Equity Dilution

In May 2012 Future Group sold a 50.1% stake in Pantaloons fashion chain to Aditya Birla Group to pare down roughly Rs 8,000 crore of debt. The Pantaloons segment was demerged out of Pantaloons Retail India Ltd, folded into Future Value Retail, and renamed Future Retail Ltd — a corporate restructuring designed to keep the listed retail vehicle clean while offloading the apparel business to a better-capitalized rival.

In August 2020 Future announced a Rs 24,713 crore (about $3.3 billion) deal to sell its retail, wholesale and logistics businesses to Reliance Retail Ventures, a Reliance Industries subsidiary. Amazon alleged this breached the Future Coupons agreement, which restricted Future Retail's sale to a list of named competitors including Reliance.

In August 2020 Future Group signed a roughly $3.4 billion agreement to sell its retail, wholesale and logistics businesses to Reliance Retail Ventures, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. With Biyani under severe debt pressure after the pandemic hit mall footfalls, the deal looked like the only viable exit — but Amazon immediately alleged the transaction breached its contractual rights under the 2019 Future Coupons investment.