A Singapore arbitrator’s decision to hold the sale of Future Retail is enforceable, the Supreme Court said.
The Apex Court on Friday, in a huge win for Amazon, said Reliance cannot go ahead with its $3.4 billion deal to buy Future Group’s retail assets. A Singapore arbitrator’s decision to hold the sale of Future Retail is enforceable, the Supreme Court said.
At the end of one of the most bitterly fought battles in the world’s only billion-plus retail market open to foreign competition, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon emerged winner against Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance.
Saying that Future group violated contracts by agreeing to sell retail assets to market leader Reliance Industries last year for over Rs 27,000 crore, Amazon had taken its partner company to the court. However, the Future group had denied any wrongdoing.
The Apex Court, last week, had reserved its judgement in the case and was set to decide whether a ruling by a Singapore tribunal restraining Future from going ahead with its merger with Reliance is valid.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani, the world’s two of the richest men were staked up against each other in the legal fight over Future’s assets. The final outcome will be shaping India’s pandemic-hit shopping sector and boost Amazon’s chances of denting the dominance of Reliance.
The Bezos-owned firm had argued that a 2019 deal it had with a Future unit included clauses saying the Indian group couldn’t sell its retail assets to anyone on a “restricted persons” list, including Reliance.
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