India's Future Group shares jump after arbitration with Amazon halted

Future Lifestyle Fashions

06/01/2022 04:22

BENGALURU, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Shares in Future Group
companies jumped on Thursday, a day after an Indian court halted
arbitration proceedings between the conglomerate and estranged
partner Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O .
    A two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court on Wednesday
agreed with Future Group that there was no legal basis for the
arbitration between the two sides to continue given India's
antitrust agency had suspended a key 2019 deal used by Amazon to
assert rights over Future.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TL0PC
    Future Enterprises  FURE.NS , Future Consumer  FTRE.NS ,
Future Retail  FRTL.NS  and Future Lifestyle Fashions  FLFL.NS 
rose as much as between 7.5% and 13.8% in a weak Mumbai market.
    The Delhi court's decision is a setback for the U.S.
e-commerce giant, which had for months used the terms of its
$200 million investment in Future Group in 2019 to block the
Kishore Biyani-owned company's attempt to sell retail assets to
Reliance Industries  RELI.NS , until the antitrust agency's
suspension of the deal last December.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2T22QJ
    Future Group previously said if the Reliance asset sale deal
fails, it will likely face liquidation as its retail businesses
were hit hard during the pandemic.
    The court will reconvene on Feb. 1 to hear the case again. A
source familiar with the case said Amazon was likely to legally
challenge the decision.
    The dispute between Future Group, Amazon and Reliance is
seen as a battle for dominance in the Indian retail market
between Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Reliance's Mukesh Ambani.
    Future Group, Amazon and Reliance did not immediately
respond to Reuters requests for comment.

 (Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by
Shounak Dasgupta)
 ((AnuronKumar.Mitra@thomsonreuters.com; +91 99863 58469))