Amazon and Future Group have written to Sebi with contrasting requests over a Rs 24,713 crore buyout of assets of India’s second-largest retailer.
Future Group has requested Sebi to expedite the review of the proposed deal and issue a no-objection certificate, while Amazon has urged that the review of the “impugned transaction” be suspended.
Amazon had dragged Future Group to arbitration at Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) after an indebted Kishore Biyani group firm signed a pact to sell retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance in August this year.
Future Group firm Future Retail (FRL) approached the Delhi high court, which earlier this month upheld Amazon’s right to make representations to statutory authorities against the Future Group-Reliance Retail deal.
However, the court also made several observations indicating that Amazon’s attempt to control FRL through a conflation of agreements it has with an unlisted unit of the Indian company will be violative of the FEMA FDI rules.
Large orders
Future group firms have started getting large orders from Reliance Industries, CEO Kishore Biyani said in an email to his employees on Tuesday.
“We have received a large order from Reliance in Future Consumer and in Future Enterprises,” Biyani said.
On the future course, he said the group is conceptualising two new brands that will offer products in multiple categories in fashion and FMCG.
“There is a lot of work that has been going on with these brands and you will see them come alive in stores by March,” he added.
