Lender Asks Future Retail, Biyanis To Submit Reply On Forensic Audit Report

Future Retail Ltd.’s lender Bank of India asked the bankrupt company as well as its promoters Kishore Biyani and Rakesh Biyani to submit their response on a forensic audit report.

The lender, which shared the forensic audit report dated 9 August with all the parties, had appointed BDO India LLP as the forensic auditor to conduct the forensic audit of Future Retail’s account, according to a stock exchange announcement.

Bank of India, in a letter to the parties on 17 August, said Future Retail had availed various credit facilities from the lender that became non-performing asset on 31 January 2022.

The lender, which didn’t reveal the contents of the forensic audit report, said both the executives are/were the directors/promoters of the company, while Kishore Biyani is also the guarantor of the credit facilities.

Bank of India said it will proceed with examination of fraud angle in terms of the Reserve Bank of India and the bank’s guidelines on fraud classification and reporting if the parties fail to submit their reply within 15 days.

Future Retail was admitted into an insolvency resolution by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in July 2022, following a petition by the company’s financial creditor Bank of India over an alleged default amount of 1,441.62 crore rupees ($173.59 million).

The distressed retailer’s resolution professional recently sought extension from 17 August to 15 September for concluding the company’s corporate insolvency resolution process.

Note: $1 = 83.0482 Indian rupees

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