Kishore Biyani resigns from Future Retail, appointed as MD of Bharti Retail

Future Retail Chairman Kishore Biyani, on Tuesday resigned from the post of Managing Director  and appointed as MD of Bharti Retail as part of the reconstitution of the board following their merger pact announced last year. The decision will come in effect from closing business hours of May 01, 2016, the company said in a statement. 

Biyani will continue to hold office as Non-Executive Director of the Company. 

Further, Rakesh Biyani also resigned from the Board as well as post of Joint Managing Director with effect from closing business hours of May 01, 2016.

In May last year, Future group agreed to merge its retail business with rival Bharti Retail in an all-stock deal worth Rs 750 crore to create one of the biggest supermarket chains with Rs 15,000 crore turnover.

"Future Group has given effect to the scheme of arrangement between Future Retail Ltd and Bharti Retail Ltd for acquisition of the retail operations of Bharti Group. The Boards of the two companies have been reconstituted to ensure proper representation of promoters and the professional Board," the group said in a statement.

Rajan Mittal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Enterprises Ltd, will continue to serve as a member of the board of directors of the company, it added.

Future Group said as part of the merger, Bharti Retail will be listed on the NSE and BSE. It has also set May 12 as the record date to ascertain the entitlement of Future Retail shareholders to receive Bharti Retail shares.

The company would be submitting the application for listing by end of May. Future Retail continues to be listed on both these exchanges, it added.

According to company sources, Future Retail Ltd will be renamed as Future Enterprises, which will own and manage the back end retail infrastructure for operating the retail network as well as the investments in various Future Group companies.

On the other hand, Bharti Retail will become Future Retail and it will be responsible for the front-end retail operations of the group, the sources added.

Future group said as part of the rejig, former CEO Bennett, Coleman & Co Ravi Dhariwal, JLL India CEO-Business Gagan Singh and ex-MD and CEO of ING Vysya Bank Shailendra Bhandari - have also come up on the board of Bharti Retail as independent directors.

Besides, C P Toshniwal, a Future Group veteran, has been appointed as CFO of the company.

Yesterday, Kishore Biyani and Rakesh Biyani had resigned from the post of Managing Director and Joint Managing Director respectively of Future Retail as part of realignment of the group's business. However, Kishore Biyani would continue to hold office as non-executive director of Future Retail Ltd, it added.

Future group operates some of the most popular retail brands in the country including Big Bazaar, EasyDay, fbb, Foodhall, Home Town and eZone. 

(With agencies inputs)