New Delhi (ILNS): There was some level of good news for Future Retail in its complicated deal involving Reliance Retail on the one hand and Amazon on the other. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) today approved its sale to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail.
However the fate of the case that Future had filed against Amazon at the Delhi High Court is still unknown, because Justice Mukta Gupta, who heard the case, has reserved her order.
The Future Group has gone to court, asking it to stop Amazon from meddling into its affairs. There is no direct challenge to the order of a Singapore arbitrator, which had declared the acquisition plan of Future to Reliance as null and void. Future wants the court to prevent Amazon to write to regulators such as SEBI about the acquisition.
Future’s contention, of course, is based on the assumption that the Singapore arbiter’s ruling was not binding as per Indian law. Amazon contends that the buy option that it has through a small stake holding in Future Retail’s parent company, allows it to have first shot at buying the whole company.
Future is in a terrible fund crunch and wants this sale to Reliance to go through quickly.