In a double win for Amazon, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has rejected Future Retail’s (FRL’s) plea to lift the interim stay on its £2.47 billion asset sale to Reliance Retail, a person familiar with the development said.
This follows the Singapore tribunal’s ruling to make FRL a party to the dispute, arising out of the agreement between Future Coupons (FCPL), an unlisted Future Group entity, and Amazon. In addition, the US e-tailer has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, urging it to set aside a recent National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order, which had allowed the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group to convene a meeting of its shareholders and creditors for consolidation of its entities.
The meeting is scheduled to be held in the second week of November and is being seen as the first step in the proposed sale of Future Group’s retail, warehousing and logistics assets to Reliance Industries. Amazon, locked in a bitter legal battle with the Future Group, wants to block the deal.
Amazon claimed the investment gave it an indirect stake in the flagship Future Group company, which operates supermarket chain Big Bazaar, as FCPL owned around 10% stake in FRL. The subsequent announcement of Future Group’s proposed asset sale to Reliance, however, saw the e-tailer dragging the Big Bazaar parent to SIAC in October last year, which granted Amazon an interim award over the Future-Reliance deal.
