NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Futuro Group expects swift regulatory approval of its $ 3.4 billion deal to sell its retail assets, said its chief executive, even with his conflicting business partner, Amazon. with Inc, stepping up efforts to block the deal.
Future and Amazon are at odds over the Indian group’s August deal with Reliance Industries Ltd. The U.S. giant claims the deal violated some of its pre-existing contracts with Future.
In December, a New Delhi court rejected Future’s request to contain Amazon’s repeated attempts to bring authorities to a standstill. But the judge left the fate of the transaction with the regulators.
“The court has already given its opinion that all institutions can have an opinion” on the sale, Future Group founder and CEO Kishore Biyani told Reuters in an interview. “So there is no reason to delay things.”
Amazon declined to comment on Biyani’s statements. Reliance did not respond to a request for comment.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the market regulator that has been analyzing the business for months, did not respond to a request for comment.
The SEBI and India’s stock exchanges may still reject or take longer to approve the deal, which is critical to the survival of Future Retail, whose more than 1,700 outlets have been hard hit by the pandemic COVID-19.
Future Retail warned that failure to close the deal could lead to the company’s liquidation and job losses for more than 29,000 employees.
“We have restored business to some extent, but there are challenges,” said Biyani, nicknamed the retail king of India for transforming the country’s retail in recent decades.
AMAZON PROTESTS
The outcome of the dispute involving Future, Reliance and Amazon is shaping India’s retail landscape, especially in deciding who will have a superior position in the grocery market that is expected to move around $ 740 billion a year in 2024.
Following Amazon’s 2019 deal with a Future unit, the Indian retailer’s groceries and fashion products are offered for sale on Amazon’s website, while Future stores also act as local warehouses serving the U.S. giant’s food supply chain. .
Biyani said he had no intention of changing his commercial ties with Amazon, despite the sour relationship. Criticizing Amazon, however, Biyani said he was confused about what Amazon wanted to achieve by blocking its business.
“I am disappointed,” he said. “What do they want? Do they want so many employees to suffer, for the business to sink?”
Amazon also took Future to a Singapore arbitrator, who approved a provisional order in October saying the Reliance deal should be stopped. Although Future says the order is not binding, the U.S. e-commerce giant continues its efforts to block the deal.
In a letter on Tuesday, Amazon asked Indian stock exchanges BSE and NSE to suspend review of the deal in light of the ongoing arbitration in Singapore.
To reinforce its case, Amazon on December 30 shared with the exchanges a confidential 63-page legal opinion signed by a former court president in India, Dipak Misra. In the opinion, seen by Reuters, Misra said that the SEBI or any other statutory authority “cannot ignore” the provisional measure approved by the arbitrator.
Misra and NSE did not immediately respond to emails requesting comments. BSE declined to comment.
Aditya Kalra reporting in New Delhi; Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy in Mumbai; William Mallard edition