Future Retail Ltd (FRL) and its promoters have moved the Delhi High Court again in an effort to stymie any move to enforce the recent order passed by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) that had gone in favour of Amazon Inc.

Last week, the SIAC has rejected a plea from Future Retail Ltd (FRL) to lift the interim stay on its Rs 24,713 crore transaction with Reliance Retail.

In October last year, the emergency arbitrator (EA) of the Singapore tribunal had handed down an interim award in favour of Amazon, effectively barring the Kishore Biyani-run entity from taking any step to dispose of or encumber its assets or issue any securities to secure any funding from a restricted party.

In a regulatory filing with the stock exchanges, FRL said has it has filed an appeal before the Delhi High Court against the October 21 order passed by the SIAC and tagged it on to its application seeking to vacate the interim award of the EA issued on October 25 last year.

FRL said it had requested the High Court to stay and set aside the operation of the October 21 order and allow the company to convene a meeting of its shareholders and creditors as directed by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai in September.

The company added that Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL) -- which had signed the deal with Amazon under which the latter acquired a 49 per cent stake in the company in December 2019.

Amazon claimed that this deal included a call option that allowed it to acquire all or part of the Promoters' shareholding in Future Retail Limited (Company). The option was exercisable between the third to the tenth years, in certain circumstances, and subject to applicable law.

Future Coupons currently holds a 9.82 per cent stake in Future Retail.

The battle between the Future group and Amazon broke out when Biyani struck a deal with Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) in August 2020 under which it intended to sell the group’s retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing assets.

Shares of FRL today ended 2.33 per cent lower at Rs 48.25 in the BSE.

The battle between Amazon and Future Retail has been playing out in various legal forums.

On September 9, the Supreme Court had stayed all proceedings relating to the dispute between the two sides for four weeks.

However, on September 28, the NCLT permitted Future Retail to hold meetings of its shareholders and creditors to seek their approval for the sale of the retail business to Reliance Retail.

The NCLT had claimed that the Supreme Court order had only restrained it from pronouncing a final order in the suit.

Meanwhile, the main hearing on whether there has been a contractual breach by Future Group, as alleged by Amazon, is likely to commence before the Singapore arbitration council in November this year.