NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian stock exchanges on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for the Future Group’s $ 3.4 billion deal to sell its retail assets, taking a step closer to closing a deal that went sour your ties to your business partner Amazon.com Inc.
Future and Amazon are in legal disputes over the Indian group’s August deal with Reliance Industries. The U.S. e-commerce giant claims that the deal violated some of its pre-existing contracts with Future.
In late-night notifications, Indian stock exchanges said they had no objections or adverse observations about the deal, saying they had reached the decision after communicating with India’s market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
SEBI said Future should share several details of the company’s ongoing litigation with Amazon when it contacts India’s National Court of Corporate Law, which also needs to sign the agreement, the Bombay Stock Exchange notification said.
SEBI separately did not make its observations public.
Reliance and Future did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The notifications will be a setback for Amazon, which in recent weeks has repeatedly written letters to the SEBI and the stock exchanges to suspend the review of the deal.
Amazon also dragged Future before a Singapore arbitrator, who approved a provisional order in October saying that the Reliance deal should be stopped. The future says that the order does not bind him.
Following the wave of exchanges, Amazon in a statement said it would continue to seek legal remedies to enforce its rights, noting that approvals were subject to the outcome of the ongoing arbitration process and other legal proceedings.
The outcome of the dispute involving Future, Reliance and Amazon is shaping India’s retail landscape, especially when deciding who will emerge as the leader of a grocery market that is expected to move around $ 740 billion a year by 2024.
Aditya Kalra reporting in New Delhi; Editing by Euan Rocha and Steve Orlofsky