A counsel for Bank of India (BoI) has termed Future Retail’s (FRL) objections against appointing Deloitte’s resolution professional (RP) for the latter’s insolvency proceedings as “misplaced and based on incorrect information”.
Insolvency firm Deloitte India Insolvency Professionals (DIIP) is separate and different from the auditor firm Deloitte Haskins and Sells (DHS) and these are completely independent and separate entities. The RP is a partner of DIIP and has not been a partner of DHS for the last 10 years, BoI counsel Ravi Kadam informed the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) during the course of the hearing on Friday.
Further, there are no common partners among these two entities and DHS had not audited Future Retail in the past 10 years, the BoI counsel, informed the tribunal, quoting a declaration filed by the RP.
Terming the objection to the appointment of RP as “misplaced and based on incorrect information”, Kadam said DIIP is an insolvency professional entity, registered with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, and works on assignments assisting insolvency professionals.
The argument came after FRL, a part of the beleaguered Future Group, had on Tuesday sought changing the proposed RP, citing “conflict of interest”. The proposed RP — backed by Deloitte India — is also an auditor to certain other Future Group companies, hence a new RP should be appointed, FRL counsel Shyam Kapadia had told the tribunal.
In April, FRL’s lenders led by BoI had selected Vijaykumar V Iyer as the RP.
The tribunal’s Mumbai bench will continue to hear the petition filed by US retail major Amazon opposing BoI’s insolvency petition against FRL, on Monday.
In May, Amazon had filed an application after BoI moved the bankruptcy court seeking to initiate a resolution process against FRL. Amazon is opposing the initiation of insolvency proceedings, alleging the banks had colluded with FRL and that bankruptcy proceedings at this stage will compromise its rights.
