Last Sunday, Amazon had a won an injunction to temporarily halt Future's deal with Reliance from a Singapore arbitrator. Future Group, however, said in response that it had complied with all regulations and is looking forward to completing the deal as early as possible.
However, Amazon again approached Indian market regulator Sebi and said Future's news release and stock exchange disclosures violated Indian regulations. It also urged Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi to investigate the matter and not approve the deal.
"Such a disclosure is against public interest, misleads public shareholders ... as well as perpetuates a fraud for the benefit of the Biyanis alone," Amazon letter said, referring to Future's promoter family led by Kishore Biyani.
Why is Amazon upset with the Future-Reliance deal?
Amazon's unhappiness stems from the fact that in 2019, it had signed a deal and invested $200 million in a Future Unit. The deal had caused that mentioned that Future Group could not sell its retail assets to anyone on a "restricted persons" list. The list included Reliance.
Reliance, however, announced in August that he had bought Future's retail, wholesale and some other businesses. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate has said it plane to "enforce its rights and complete the transaction without any delay".
Amazon went on to say that the Future-Reliance deal also means that the US giant will lose the prospect of becoming the single-largest shareholder of the Indian retailer, which has an "irreplaceable and widespread network" of more than 1,500 retail stores.
What does Future say?
Future Group, meanwhile, argued that it had entered into a deal with the Reliance Group because it was badly affected during the Covid-19 pandemic and deemed it right to protect shareholders during the difficult period.However, the Singapore arbitrator VK Rajah, a former attorney general of Singapore, was not convinced with Future's explanation.
"The law expects businesspersons to honour their contractual commitments," Rajah mentioned in his order. Amazon has told Sebi that if the Future-Reliance deal is implemented by completely disregarding the interim arbitration order, it will cause "irreparable harm" and injury to Amazon.