Earlier this year, Future Retail had announced its deal with Reliance Retail for the latter’s acquisition of its logistics, retail, wholesale and warehousing transactions for Rs. 24, 713 crores. E-commerce giant, Amazon, who is one of Future Coupon’s investors had challenged the deal citing that Reliance has been listed as one of the 30 negative companies with which Future cannot transact.
An emergency arbitration was before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre seeking relief. The Arbitrator had granted interim relief by pausing the transaction. The arbitral award was contended to be unlawful and therefore not binding before the Delhi High Court.
The Court earlier reserved its order, meanwhile the Competition Commission of India has approved of the acquisition between the parties. In order to prevent Amazon from approaching other regulators such as SEBI, Kishore-Biyani led Future group contends that Amazon is only a shareholder in Future Coupons and not Future Retail. The acquisition is proposed to help Future in the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lawcutor 