The Delhi High Court has ruled that US e-commerce giant Amazon's attempt to control Future Retail through a conflation of agreements it has with an unlisted unit of the Indian company violates FEMA FDI rules. Kishore Biyani, Managing Director, Future Retail said, the court has approved Future Rs 24,713 crore deal to sell assets to Reliance Retail.
The entire legal basis of the emergency arbitration award that Amazon secured to halt the Rs 24,713 crore deal has been vitiated by the court, Biyani added. The High Court had earlier upheld Amazon's right to make representations to statutory authorities against the Future Group-Reliance Retail deal.
It however made several observations in its order that could potentially upend the US giant's 2019 investment in Future Coupons (FCPL) - Future Retail's parent. The High Court analyzed the clauses of three agreements - Future Retail's shareholder's agreement with FCPL (FRL SHA), FCPL's shareholder's agreement with Amazon (FCPL SHA) and FCPL's share subscription agreement with Amazon (FCPL SSA).
