NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Future India Group expects quick approval to settle its $ 3.4 billion transaction to sell its retail assets, its chief executive said, even as partner its business Amazon.com Inc. is stepping up its efforts to block the transaction.
Future and Amazon are at the forefront of the Indian group’s August agreement with Reliance Industries Ltd. The US giant claims that the agreement violated some of its pre-existing contracts with Future.
A court in New Delhi in December rejected Future’s request to curb Amazon’s repeated attempts to force authorities to stop the deal. But the judge left the fate of the transaction to the regulators.
“The court has already given its opinion that each institution can have an opinion” on the sale, Future Group founder and CEO Kishore Biyani told Reuters. “So there’s no reason why things should be delayed.”
Amazon declined to comment on Biyani’s remarks. Reliance did not respond to a request for comment.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the market regulator that has been reviewing the transaction for months, did not respond to a request for comment.
However, SEBI and Indian stock exchanges could reject or take longer to approve the deal, which is essential for the survival of Future Retail, whose more than 1,700 outlets have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Future Retail warned that the failure to close the transaction could lead to the liquidation of the company and the loss of jobs for more than 29,000 employees.
“We have restored businesses to some extent, but there are challenges,” said Biyani, nicknamed the king of retail in India for transforming the country’s retail trade in recent decades.
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The outcome of the dispute involving Future, Reliance and Amazon is seen in shaping India’s retail landscape, especially when deciding who will have an advantage in the food market, which is estimated to be worth about $ 740 billion a year. until 2024.
Following Amazon’s 2019 deal with a Future unit, the Indian retailer’s food and fashion products are being offered for sale on Amazon’s website, while Future stores also act as local warehouses serving the American giant’s food supply chain. .
Biyani said he had no intention of changing trade ties with Amazon, despite the sour relationship. Criticizing Amazon, however, Biyani said he was confused by what Amazon wanted to achieve by blocking its agreement.
“I’m disappointed,” he said. “What do they want? Do they want so many employees to suffer, to lose business?”
Amazon also took Future to a Singapore arbitrator, who passed an interim order in October, saying the Reliance deal should be stopped. Although Future says the order is not mandatory, the American e-commerce giant continues its efforts to block the transaction.
In a letter on Tuesday, Amazon asked Indian BSE and NSE exchanges to suspend the review of the transaction in light of ongoing arbitration in Singapore.
To support its case, Amazon, on December 30, shared a confidential 63-page legal opinion signed by a former Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra. According to Reuters, Misra said that SEBI or any other legal authority “cannot ignore” the interim order adopted by the arbitrator.
Misra and NSE did not immediately respond to emails requesting comments. BVB declined to comment.
Report by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy in Mumbai; Mountainous of William Mallard