Amazon talks with India's Future broke down over U.S. firm's demand of $200 mln-sources

Future Enterprises

15/03/2022 14:56

By Aditya Kalra
    NEW DELHI, March 15 (Reuters) - Dispute settlement talks
between Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O  and India's Future Retail
 FRTL.NS  broke due to disagreement over the U.S. group's demand
for the return of at least $200 million it had invested in the
Indian firm, two sources told Reuters. 
    Amazon has for months blocked the $3.4 billion sale of
Future's retail assets to rival Reliance, announced in 2020,
citing a breach of certain contracts. Future denied any
wrongdoing, and hopes had risen recently of an out-of-court
settlement after Amazon and Future agreed to talks.
    On Tuesday, the two sides told India's Supreme Court, which
is hearing the dispute, the talks had collapsed, and Amazon took
out newspaper ads criticising both Reliance and Future.
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    Two sources with direct knowledge of the settlement talks
told Reuters that Amazon representatives informed Future the
dispute could end if the U.S. company could get back at least
$200 million it invested in a Future unit in 2019 - the
transaction at the heart of ongoing legal disputes.
    Future instead offered a stake of an equivalent amount in
one of its remaining group companies after Reliance  RELI.NS 
takes over most of its retail assets, saying it was financially
distressed. But Amazon did not accept that, the sources said.
    Future and Amazon did not respond to e-mails seeking
comment.

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 (Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi
Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((aditya.kalra@tr.com; +91-11-49548021; Twitter @adityakalra;))