The Delhi high court puts brake on Future Retail $3.4 billion sale of its retail assets to Reliance Industries. A petition by Amazon.com Inc has alleged that the deal was in violation of its own contract with Future.
In an interim order, the court directed Future Retail to maintain status-quo on the assets until the pronouncement of the reserved order. On October 25, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre passed an interim order in favor of Amazon, barring Future-Retail from taking any steps to dispose or encumber its assets or issuing securities to seek any funding against them.
In a statement, Amazon said, “We have utmost respect and appreciate the interim order of the Hon’ble Delhi High Court to maintain status quo.”
At stake in the legal battle is control of India’s estimated $1 trillion retail market between Jeff Bezos’s Amazon and Reliance, controlled by India’s richest man-Mukesh Ambani.