New Delhi, NFAPost: Reliance Industries agreed to buy Future Group but Amazon objected. The Jeff Bezos-led company already got an order from a Singapore arbitrator stopping the deal between Mukesh Ambani and Kishore Biyani from progressing.
India’s retail sector is likely to grow 46% over the next four years to an annual $1.3 trillion (roughly Rs. 95,74,500 crores), showed data from Forrester Research. The key battle is over groceries, likely to be worth around $740 billion (roughly Rs. 54,50,100 crores) a year by 2024, the data showed. Reliance and Future are geared to dominate the market in India, with the next competitor, DMart, being far behind in terms of stores and reach.
In response, Future Group went to the Delhi High Court seeking it to stop the global e-commerce giant from interfering in the deal between. The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a plea from India’s Future Group that sought to restrain US partner Amazon from interfering in its $3.4-billion (roughly Rs. 25,000 crores) asset sale to Reliance.
The court said that Amazon is free to challenge the deal and the spokesperson chose to highlight that part. “We welcome the verdict of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi rejecting the interim injunction sought by Future Retail and their claim that the Emergency Arbitrator process is invalid under Indian law,” Amazon spokesperson said.
However, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) last month approved Future’s sale of its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance.
