Future group moves HC on Reliance deal

Beleaguered Future Group moved the Delhi high

court on Wednesday against its order directing the company to maintain status quo on its ₹24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail, which has been objected to by US-based Amazon. The e-commerce giant had argued that Future breached contracts by selling retail assets to Reliance. The court sided with the US firm, saying an earlier order from the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) that put the Future-Reliance deal on hold was valid. Future said in its appeal that the company’s creditors would be at “significant risk” if the deal fails. On Wednesday, Sebi barred Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani and several other related entities from accessing securities market for a period of 1 year in a case pertaining to alleged insider trading between March and April 2017. Sebi also barred Biyani from buying, selling or dealing in securities of Future Retail for 2 years.

NEW DELHI: Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail Limited (FRL) on Wednesday filed an appeal before a division bench in the Delhi High Court against the ‘status quo’ order on a $3.4 billion deal for the sale of its retail assets to Reliance Industries Ltd.

A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh will hear the matter on Thursday.

Senior advocate Darius Khambata mentioned the matter urgently and urged it to hear the plea on Wednesday itself. “FRL will be saved from insolvency. The matter is coming up tomorrow otherwise,” Khambata said.

However, opposing the urgent mentioning, senior advocate Rajiv Nayyar for Amazon told the court that procedure should be followed. Following this, the bench said, “Tomorrow” and posted the matter for Thursday.

In an interim order passed on Tuesday, Justice JR Midha ordered Future Retail to maintain status quo on the assets starting at 4.50 pm on Tuesday, until “the pronouncement of the reserved order” while acting on a petition by Amazon.com Inc, which has alleged that the deal was in violation of its own contract with Future. “Contrary to reports carried in a section of the media, Amazon has not only been committed to an early resolution of the dispute with Future but had continued to be willing to support FRL even during the temporary financial challenges posed by COVID,” an Amazon spokesperson said.