India's Future Group tumbles 10% as court stops asset sale by its chief

Future Lifestyle Fashions

19/03/2021 06:16

By Chandini Monnappa
    BENGALURU, March 19 (Reuters) - Shares in Future Group
companies fell as much as 10% on Friday after an Indian court
blocked its founder and chief executive officer from selling his
personal assets, in a setback to the group's $3.4 billion deal
with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd  RELI.NS . 
    Shares of Future Retail  FRTL.NS  fell as much as 10% on
Friday morning to 55.90 rupees. Other group companies including
Future Consumer Ltd  FTRE.NS , Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd 
 FLFL.NS  and Future Enterprises Ltd  FURE.NS  were also down
between 8% and 10%.
    Amazon.com Inc  AMZN.O  is locked in a legal dispute with
Future, saying it allegedly violated certain contracts by
selling its retail assets. Future denies any wrongdoing. 
    The twists and turns in the case has made two of the world's
richest men, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Reliance's Ambani, lock
horns as both fight for a bigger share of India's retail market.
    "Such a long drawn-out deal involving a company in urgent
need of funds is not healthy," Kumar Rajagopalan, chief
executive, Retailers Association of India (RAI) told Reuters.
    "Thousands of employees and a large number of small and
medium enterprise vendors get impacted, and at an industry level
the whole retail ecosystem is disturbed."
    Future Group, the country's second-largest retailer with
more than 2000 retail stores and supermarkets including Big
Bazaar and Foodhall in its portfolio, has warned it could face
liquidation if the deal with Reliance does not go through.

 (Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by
Ramakrishnan M.)
 ((Chandini.M@thomsonreuters.com; +918061822697;))