India's Future Retail takes Reliance deal saga to Supreme Court

Future Enterprises

08/11/2021 12:27

By Aditya Kalra
    NEW DELHI, Nov 8 (Reuters) - India's Future Retail  FRTL.NS 
has asked the country's top court to stall a Singapore
arbitration panel's decision to freeze a $3.4 billion asset sale
after e-commerce giant Amazon  AMZN.O  had sought to block the
deal. 
    The dispute started when Future Retail, India's
second-largest retailer with more than 1,700 stores agreed last
year to sell retail and other operations to India's biggest
retail group Reliance Industries  RELI.NS . 
    Amazon has argued that its own deal with one of Future
Group's businesses contained clauses prohibiting the Indian
entity from selling retail assets to anyone on a "restricted
persons" list that included Reliance. 
    Future Retail, which runs popular Big Bazaar outlets in
India, denies having violated any contractual agreements with
Amazon.
    The long-running dispute has placed two of the world's
richest men - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Reliance majority
owner Mukesh Ambani - at odds and could help to determine
whether Amazon can blunt Reliance's dominance https://www.reuters.com/article/amazon-india-future-reliance-idUSKBN2871AM
 of India's huge retail market.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2IB3MD
    On Monday Future Retail urged the Supreme Court to put the
Singapore arbitration panel's decision on hold, citing stress on
its business unless the the sale goes through, according to a
filing seen by Reuters and which is likely to be heard in the
coming days.
    As in previous court filings, Future said its bank loans and
thousands of jobs remain at risk and a failure to conclude the
Reliance deal could push it into liquidation.
    The Singapore panel put the Future-Reliance deal on hold
last year and in October declined Future Retail's request to
revoke that decision. Subsequently, a Delhi court also declined
to give Future any immediate relief under Indian law to put the
panel's decision on hold.
    Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment
on Monday.
    The U.S. company has repeatedly argued that Future Retail
must not proceed with the Reliance deal in light of the
arbitration panel's decisions.

    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Analysis: Battle of the billionaires - Bezos, Ambani gun for
India retail supremacy     ID:nL4N2IB3MD 
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi
Editing by David Goodman)
 ((aditya.kalra@tr.com; +91-11-49548021; Twitter @adityakalra;))