Amazon Moves Delhi HC's Division Bench Seeking Relief In RIL-Future Deal

The appeal comes days after Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani said that he expects swift regulatory approval for the deal. The matter is likely to come up for a hearing on Wednesday.

(Representative Image/ Getty)

New Delhi: Jeff Bezos led Amazon.com, Inc. on Monday urged the Delhi High Court divisional bench to set aside "certain prima facie observations" in the December 21 order of the single bench that allowed Future Group to continue its deal with Reliance Retail under Indian laws, a move that may further delay the Rs 24,713 crore deal. The appeal comes days after Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani said that he expects swift regulatory approval for the deal. The matter is likely to come up for a hearing on Wednesday. While upholding the Singapore International Arbitration Centre's (SIAC) provisional award for Amazon as valid, a Single Judge Bench also ruled the Future-RIL deal legal and left the final decision to the regulatory authorities, before whom the agreement is pending for final approval.

Amazon's appeal:

"Having held that the Emergency Arbitrator's order was not 'coram non-judice' (without jurisdiction), the single judge could not have, in the same order, render any observations inconsistent with the express premises of the Emergency Arbitrator's interim order," Amazon argued in its appeal. ABP Network has reviewed a copy of Amazon's Appeal filed in the Delhi High court on Monday. "The prima facie observations contained in the impugned order effectively resulted in allowing Future Retail to collaterally bypass the EA order. FRL has been relying on these prima facie observations to misconstrue the true import of the impugned order in an effort to mislead regulators to grant approval to the potential transaction, which has constrained the Appellant to file the present appeal to quash and set aside the prima facie observations as set out in detail in the appeal," said Amazon in its 186-page appeal.

Future Group to defend

Kishore Biyani-led Future Group is likely to defend Amazon's appeal before the court. "We would like to inform that the Company is in receipt of communication dated 11th January, 2021 from lawyers of Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC informing that Amazon has filed an appeal before Hon'ble Delhi High Court against the order dated 21st December, 2020 passed by Ms. Justice Mukta Gupta in Suit filed by the Company in Delhi High Court. We shall defend the Appeal through our legal counsels and keep you informed about outcome of the same," said Future retail in filing to the exchanges. Amazon writes to SEBI again to suspend review of RIL-Future deal Amazon has again written to market regulator SEBI asking it to suspend the "review of the Impugned Transaction as well as the scheme involving the Impugned Transaction" and not grant any no-objection to the Reliance-Future deal. The e-commerce giant also requested the market regulator to direct the Indian Stock Exchanges not to issue any letter of no objection/approval to Future Group.

Key background:

In August, Future Group, which runs supermarkets and high-end grocery stores throughout India, agreed to sell its retail assets to oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance for $3.4 billion, but Amazon claimed that Future had violated the contract with the US firm in 2019. Amazon took Future Group to an arbitrator in Singapore, which in October passed an interim order saying that the Reliance agreement should be halted. Future Retail argued that the order was not binding and mounted a further legal challenge in a court in New Delhi instead.

Fight between Bezos and Ambani to control the Indian retail market

The outcome of the dispute has implications for the future shape of India's retail landscape, especially in deciding who will have the upper hand in the groceries market expected to be worth around $740 billion a year by 2024. Utkarsh Sinha, Managing Director of Bexley Advisors, feels that India's retail landscape is up for a massive and large scale shake-up. The behemoths' battle will upend urban retail, and the largely untapped potential of tier-2 and tier-3 India means that market will be the next battleground soon. "The impact of this on high-street retailers and the corner stores is going to be massive: they will be confronted by the dual pressures of being squeezed on price due to consumer promotions being passed on by the giants, coupled with the bottomless catalogs that they offer and that a small retailer can never hope to match," said Sinha told ABP Network. Ultimately, we can expect large scale consolidation on the space at all scales, and for newer business models that enable the small retailer to sell online or fulfill orders placed online, Sinha added. Despite Amazon's appeal, Reliance shares closed up 3.14% at Rs 1956.65 in a firm Mumbai market on Tuesday, valuing the company at Rs 12,40407 crore.