Amazon versus Ambani. Singapore tribunal rejects Future plea to lift stay on Reliance deal

The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has rejected Future Retail’s plea to lift the interim stay on its asset sale of ₹24,713 crore to Reliance Retail.

Recently, SIAC had passed an order stating that Future Retail, a sister concern of Future Coupons Private Limited, too was a party to the arbitration.

Future Retail in a statement said: “The Arbitration Tribunal has passed a decision dismissing the application to vacate the Interim Award of the Emergency Arbitrator.”

After facing acute cash crunch post-Covid last year, the Kishore Biyani-owned Future Retail decided to sell its assets to Reliance Retail. The sale included the acquisition of the retail, wholesale, and logistics and warehousing business of Future Group for ₹24,713 crore. This deal was contested by Amazon, which invested ₹1,400 crore in Future Retail’s sister concern Future Coupons Private Limited. In October, the American e-commerce giant dragged the retail chain to arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and got an interim stay from an Emergency Arbitrator.

This essentially barred Future Retail from taking any step to dispose off or encumber its assets or issue any securities to secure any funding from a restricted party.

Plea in NCLT

While the EA had passed an order in favour of Amazon, Future Retail and Reliance Retail had continued to approach the relevant regulatory authorities to get approval for the merger deal. Both had moved applications in the NCLT, too, to get approval to conduct meetings with their respective shareholders. Recently, the NCLT had granted approval to both the companies to conduct these meetings.

Meanwhile, Amazon has filed a fresh plea in the Supreme Court seeking a bar on both the companies from conducting the said meetings. The e-commerce giant further said the NCLT order allowing the shareholders meetings is in violation of the earlier order by the Supreme Court.

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