Online fashion store Koovs sold off by administrators as Biyani fails to invest

The company has now been sold to SGIK 3 Investments Ltd., which is owned by Waheed Alli, who is also the Chairman of Koovs.
Online fashion store Koovs sold off by administrators as Biyani fails to invest
Online fashion store Koovs sold off by administrators as Biyani fails to invest
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Koovs Plc is an online fashion retail store registered in the UK. The company has now been sold to SGIK 3 Investments Ltd. SGIK 3 is owned by Waheed Alli who is also the Chairman of Koovs and the company’s largest creditor.

The decision to sell the company has been taken by the administrators, Geoff Rowley and Jason Baker. The entire business and all assets owned by Koovs Plc stand sold. The decision by the administrators follows the failure of the largest shareholder in the company, Future Lifestyle Fashion, to come up with investments it had committed to bring in. Future Lifestyle was to have made an investment of $8.34 million into Koovs to revive it. Future Lifestyle did not make this investment. Hence this decision by the administrators to sell the company.

Future Lifestyle Fashion is part of India’s Future Group led by Kishore Biyani. The group has varied interests in the retail space with its Big Bazaar chain of supermarkets across the country. Future Lifestyle is the fashion business segment of the group, which runs the retail stores Central and Brand Factory. It also retails brands such as Lee Cooper, UMM, ALL, Indigo Nation, among others in India.

With Biyani not coming forth with the funds and the company not being able to raise funds from any alternative sources, it decided to sell it. There were attempts made to keep the company as a working concern by putting it up for sale through competitive bidding. Even this did not fetch any favourable response. Koovs Plc is a company listed on London’s junior market.

The model followed in this sale process is in some ways similar to the one now being adopted in India after the IBC Act kicked in. Here, there is the NCLT which appoints a Resolution Professional (RP) who then looks for a suitable buyer and the Committee of Creditors approves the buyer and the terms. In the UK case, there is no NCLT; the company’s management decides to bring in neutral administrators who do the same job as the RP and they take decisions in the best interests of the creditors.

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