India's Future asks Delhi court to quash Singapore panel's block on asset sale

Future Enterprises

27/10/2021 15:31

By Aditya Kalra and Abhirup Roy
    NEW DELHI, Oct 27 (Reuters) - India's Future Retail
 FRTL.NS  has asked a Delhi court to quash a decision by a
Singapore arbitration panel that has kept the $3.4 billion sale
of Future's retail assets in limbo while the panel hears
objections from Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O .
    Amazon has mounted legal challenges https://reut.rs/2JcHaGd
 against Future's planned asset sale to market leader Reliance
Industries  RELI.NS  since last year, accusing the company of
violating certain contracts by doing so. Future denies any
wrongdoing.
    A Singapore arbitrator last year put the Future-Reliance
deal on hold, and the panel last week declined Future's request
https://reut.rs/3Bqxgq4 to revoke that decision. On Wednesday,
Future asked the Delhi High Court to intervene and quash the
arbitrator's decision according to Indian law, its legal filing
seen by Reuters shows. 
    "The Arbitral Tribunal erroneously rejected FRL's (Future
Retail) contention," its filing stated. "FRL submits that the
standards applied by the Arbitral Tribunal ... are incorrect."
    Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
    Future is India's second-largest retailer with over 1,700
stores and has warned that failure to strike the deal with
Reliance could push it into liquidation.
    The dispute started when Future, hamstrung by an economic
hit from the COVID-19 pandemic, entered into a deal last year to
sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and certain other
businesses to Reliance.
    Amazon had its sights on ultimately owning some of Future's
retail assets itself. It has argued a 2019 deal it had with a
Future unit contained clauses prohibiting the Indian group from
selling its retail assets to anyone on a "restricted persons"
list that included Reliance.
    The outcome of the tussle involving two of the world's
richest men, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Reliance's Mukesh Ambani,
is seen as reshaping https://reut.rs/3mkaGeh India's
pandemic-hit shopping sector and deciding whether Amazon can
blunt Reliance's dominance of the country's nearly
trillion-dollar retail market.

 (Reporting by Abhirup Roy; editing by David Evans)
 ((abhirup.roy@thomsonreuters.com; + 91 22 6180 7067; Reuters
Messaging: abhirup.roy.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))