Mumbai, Sept. 13: After more than a year of trying to find a buyer for its debt-laden businesses, Vishal Retail has brought on board the Chennai-based Shriram group and an Indian arm of private equity player TPG.

In a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Vishal Retail has sought shareholder approval to sell its retail trading unit or front-end of its business to Shriram group and the wholesale trading, institutional sales and franchise operations to the TPG subsidiary.

Both these sales have been made for a total consideration of Rs 100 crore on a slump sale basis where entire undertakings will be transferred and values will not be assigned on individual assets and liabilities.

The BSE notice also said this sale would include rights, assets and certain liabilities connected to the retail businesses. However, it would not include freehold properties of the company in Calcutta, Hubli, Dehra Dun and Jabalpur.

In late 2009, Vishal Retail had approached several lenders to restructure its debt of Rs 730 crore under the Reserve Bank of India’s corporate debt restructuring rules. Some of these had approved the retail chain’s plans to hand over control to TPG.

The sale, however, is subject to orders of Delhi High Court, which has barred the company from selling its assets as some lenders to Vishal Retail who are not part of the debt recast have filed a case in the courts. These lenders who had approached the courts asking for the liquidation of Vishal Retail include Barclays and DBS Bank Ltd.

Some Indian retail chains that took on large amounts of debt to expand have also faced troubled times like Vishal Retail. In fact, a private equity backed retail firm, Subhiksha, was forced to shut down after a restructuring exercise to recast its debt failed.

Vishal Retail suffered a loss of Rs 414 crore in the year ended March 31.

The retailer’s scrip rose nearly 7 per cent to Rs 54.25 on the BSE today after it announced its decision to sell off to the Shriram group and TPG.