Future Retail pays $14 million interest on dollar bonds

NEWDELHI: Kishore Biyani’s flagship company Future Retail Ltd, which runs the popular supermarket chain Bigbazaar, on Monday said that it has paid $14 million (approximately ₹105 crore) in pending interest on dollar bonds, after missing last month’s due date.

“In furtherance to our letter dated July 22, 2020, wherein we had informed about the grace period of 30 days for making payment of interest on above USD notes; today we are pleased to inform that the company has made the payment of said interest for the half-year for an amount of $14 million on USD notes,” Future Retail said in a filing.

The company had informed the exchanges last month that it had missed paying interest on bonds worth $500 million, due in 2025, which it had raised in January. Given the 30-day grace period for making the payment, it didn’t constitute a default. Another delay in payment would have classified it as default since the grace period has ended.

Future Retail is facing a severe liquidity crisis and is in advanced talks to sell assets to Reliance Industries Ltd. In July, it had blamed the pandemic for its weakened liquidity position.

It was not immediately clear how Future Retail arranged the funds for the interest payment.