SEBI ban on Biyani, others won’t impact deal with Reliance

Further, Kishore Biyani, some other promoters and Future Corporate Resources Pvt Ltd (FCRPL) plan to appeal against the order passed by SEBI

New Delhi: Future Retail Ltd has said that SEBI’s one-year ban on its Chairperson Kishore Biyani and some other promoters from the securities market will have “no impact” on the Rs 24,713 crore-deal with Reliance.

Further, Kishore Biyani, some other promoters and Future Corporate Resources Pvt Ltd (FCRPL) plan to appeal against the order passed by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday.

---

“The order will have no impact on the ongoing Scheme of Arrangement of the company. We understand that the relevant parties propose to challenge this Order in exercise of their statutory right to appeal,” Future Retail Ltd (FRL) said in a late-night regulatory filing on Wednesday.

In a separate statement, Future Corporate Resources Pvt Ltd (FCRPL) said the SEBI order “has taken care to exclude dealings in securities under any impending Scheme of Arrangement”. “Therefore, the SEBI would not pose a hurdle to the ongoing Scheme of Arrangement with the Reliance Group,” it said.

FCRPL said the SEBI order is “untenable since it treats a well-anticipated and publicly well-known impending reorganisation of the home furnishing businesses that the Future Group effected in 2017 to be unpublished information”. “The Order will be challenged in exercise of the statutory right to appeal,” it added.

On Wednesday, SEBI had barred Kishore Biyani and certain other promoters of Future Retail Ltd from the securities market for one year for indulging in insider trading in the shares of the company. In addition, the regulator has imposed a fine of Rs 1 crore each on Kishore Biyani, Anil Biyani and Future Corporate Resources. Besides, they have been asked to disgorge Rs 17.78 crore for the wrongful gains made by them. The development comes at a time when Future Group is locked in a bitter legal battle with e-commerce giant Amazon over the former’s Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance.