Indian stock exchanges strike failed Future-Reliance deal for Amazon

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian stock exchanges on Wednesday gave the green light to Future Group’s $ 3.4 billion deal to sell its retail assets, one step closer to reaching a deal which altered its links with its business partner Amazon.com Inc.

Future and Amazon are locked in legal wrangling over the Indian group’s August deal with Reliance Industries. The US e-commerce giant alleges the deal violated some of its pre-existing contracts with Future.

In late-night notifications, Indian exchanges said they had no objections or adverse comments to the deal, saying they made the decision after contacting India’s markets regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

SEBI has advised Future to share various details of the company’s ongoing litigation with Amazon when it comes to India’s National Company Law Tribunal, which is also due to sign the agreement, according to the Bombay Stock Exchange notification.

SEBI has not separately made its observations public.

Reliance and Future did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The notifications will be a setback for Amazon, which has repeatedly written letters to SEBI and the exchanges in recent weeks to suspend review of the deal.

Amazon also took Future to an arbitrator in Singapore, which passed an interim order in October saying the Reliance deal should be halted. Future says the order doesn’t bind him.

Following the nod of the exchanges, Amazon said in a statement that it will continue to pursue legal remedies to assert its rights, noting that approvals are subject to the outcome of the ongoing arbitration process and others. lawsuits.

The outcome of the dispute between Future, Reliance and Amazon is shaping the retail landscape in India, particularly in deciding who will become the leader of a grocery market that is expected to be worth around $ 740 billion a year. by 2024.