Future Retail accuses Amazon of demanding $40 million to forego refusal rights

In its documents to Singapore International Arbitration Centre, Future Retail has accused US e-tail giant Amazon of demanding $40 million to forego its “right of first refusal” to buy Future Group’s assets in Future Retail.

In its submission to the emergency arbitrator, the retailer claimed that Abhijeet Mazumdar, head of corporate development and private investments at Amazon, had made a verbal offer to Future Group promoter Kishore Biyani on behalf of the e-tailer, asking for “$40 million as compensation in exchange for the Future Group and Reliance proceeding with the disputed transaction”.

As per an Economic Times report, the Future Group further claimed that according to messages exchanged between Biyani and Amit Agarwal, global senior VP and country head at Amazon India, the e-tailer was kept in the know about the progress of the deal between Reliance Industries (RIL) and the Future Group.

SIAC, however, had noted in its interim award against the proposed RIL-Future deal, which it granted to Amazon, that — despite the e-tailer actively seeking to invest more into the debt-laden Future Group along with other investors — it was not apprised of the finer details of the RIL-Future arrangement.