According to a report as Bloomberg, Amazon.com Inc. warned the founders of Future Retail Ltd. that any effort to transfer its assets to Reliance Industries Ltd. would be liable for civil and criminal consequences, intensifying a battle to buy the beleaguered Indian cash-strapped retailer.
In a notice published in the local newspapers on Tuesday, the U.S. giant said any such transfer violated the binding orders of an arbitration tribunal and is against the submissions made before the Supreme Court. The assets would remain with Future Retail until the National Company Law Tribunal approved a merger with Ambani’s conglomerate, Amazon said in the notice, the report said.
The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group got caught in the tussle between two large conglomerates after Amazon objected to Reliance Industries’ August 2020 offer to buy Future Retail’s stores and warehouses for 247.1 billion rupees ($3.2 billion). The American e-commerce giant said the deal violated its 2019 agreement with another Future Group firm.
Reliance Industries, in late February, quietly began taking over the rental leases of hundreds of stores once run by Future Retail and Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd. amid the lawsuits and arbitration across India and Singapore, the report said.
The public notice also comes at a time when the fate of investments in the group by firms, including Blackstone Inc. and several local and international lenders, hang in the balance. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, Future and Amazon have been trying to hammer out an out-of-court settlement by March 15, when they need to report progress to India’s Supreme Court. (Bloomberg)
