Favourable orders for Amazon, arbitration court stalls Future-RIL deal

E-commerce major Amazon has got a favourable ruling in Singapore regarding the Reliance Retail's buyout of the debt-laden Future Group as the deal has been temporarily stalled.

The arbitration panel, in an interim order, has directed the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group not to proceed with the deal with Reliance Retail for now.

"We welcome the award of the Emergency Arbitrator. We are grateful for the order which grants all the reliefs that were sought. We remain committed to an expeditious conclusion of the arbitration process," an Amazon spokesperson said.

Future Group, however, did not immediately respond on the matter.

In a major turn of events in the buyout of the businesses of the debt laden Future Group by Reliance Retail, e-commerce giant Amazon.com earlier this month stepped in and said that Future Group violated a contract with it by entering into the sale agreement with the Mukesh Ambani-led retail major.

Last year, Amazon acquired a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons, a Future group entity.

In August, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL), a subsidiary of RIL announced that it is acquiring the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing business from the Future Group as going concerns on a slump sale basis for lump sum aggregate consideration of Rs 24,713 crore, subject to adjustments as set out in the composite scheme of arrangement.

The acquisition is part of the scheme in which the Future Group is merging certain companies carrying on the aforesaid businesses into Future Enterprises Limited (FEL).