An ongoing feud between the Future Group and Amazon has been the talk of the town since a while now. The ongoing dispute between the Future Group and Amazon is rooted in the latter’s bid to maintain its domination in India’s multi-billion dollars’ online shopping market. Amazon challenged the legality of the Future Retail of India (FRL) -Reliance deal on multiple fronts and it is desperately trying to break the merger between Future Group and Reliance. However, Future retail has denied accepting Amazon’s terms and conditions.
Future Group turns down Amazon’s request
In a recent development, Future Retail has given Amazon a brush off to deny its terms and conditions. According to a report by Economic Times (ET), “FRL has stepped in with the decision to not accept Amazon’s request asking to allow private equity fund Samara Capital to conduct an expedited due diligence of the cash-strapped retailer.”
Ravindra Dhariwal, one of the independent directors of FRL said, “All the diligence has been done to death—by Reliance Retail—and by the banks as part of the OTR process. Their diligence request is just smoke and mirrors.” Dhariwal added that Amazon just wants to hog the limelight through these offers.
The ET report further states that Reliance retail is offering Rs 24,000 crore to FRL. It is pertinent to note that FRL owes only Rs 12,500 crore to the banks. Dhariwal iterated that Amazon’s offer was a “faulty bandage on a hemorrhaging patient”. “This is just a smokescreen, a PR exercise which we have seen through” said Dhariwal.
Meanwhile, Banks have also refused to intervene in the matter. Domestic banks led by State Bank of India (SBI) said, “We would rather concentrate on what can be done to recover dues rather than taking sides.”
Amazon losing Amazon-Future-Reliance war
In this war of dominance, Future group seemingly is winning. Earlier this month, a division bench of the Delhi High Court had stayed the arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon before a Singapore tribunal.
This means that the arbitration proceedings initiated by Amazon against Future Retail disputing the latter’s Rs. 24,500-crore merger deal with Reliance Retail will not take place unless Amazon goes in appeal and the Supreme Court stays the order passed by the Delhi High Court. This paved way for the Future-Reliance deal.
Mukesh Ambani, in August 2020, cracked a deal that would have established Reliance’s presence in India’s e-commerce market and overturned the competition posed by Amazon and Flipkart.
Read more: Reliance’s masterplan to crush Amazon looks pretty solid
As reported by TFI, Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL) bought Kishore Biyani led Future Retail Limited for Rs 24,713 crore. However, Amazon, an investor in Future Coupons that, in turn, is a shareholder in Future Retail Ltd., vehemently objected to the deal.
Fuming that Reliance and Future group were going to destroy Jeff Bezos’s company, he took the Future Group to court on the basis of a non-competitive clause that it has signed with the wholly-owned but unlisted subsidiary of the Future Group.
Amazon, being the devious corporation it is, stalled the deal. In a nutshell, a measly $200 million investment in Future Group in 2019 by Amazon stopped the $3.4 billion deal between Reliance and Future Group.