The latest petition is filed on a day when the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) had dismissed a January petition by Future Retail to exclude itself as a party to the ongoing arbitration process.
Amazon on Wednesday has filed another petition in the Supreme Court appealing the apex court to set aside a September order by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) that had allowed Future Retail (FRL) to convene meetings of its shareholders and creditors seeking approval of its year-long proposal to sell its assets to Reliance Retail.
The latest petition is filed on a day when the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) had dismissed a January petition by FRL to exclude itself as a party to the ongoing arbitration process.
In the Thursday petition, Amazon had accused the NCLT's 28th September order of “being in violation” of 9th September order by the apex court that had directed statutory bodies such as the NCLT, Competition Commission of India (CCI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to put on hold all proceedings regarding the Rs 25,000 crore proposed deal between Future Group and Reliance Retail. Now Amazon is seeking a stay on the NCLT order as well asking the apex court to restrain the proposed meetings of shareholders and creditors of FRL scheduled to be held on 10th and 11th of November for which the Indian retailer had issued notices on 11th October.
While allowing the application of the Kishore Biyani-owned group on 28th September, the division bench presided by Suchitra Kanuparthi and Chandra Bhan Singh had refused an oral application of the Amazon counsel to stay the operation of the order for one week.
In February, Amazon had approached the NCLT, objecting to Future Group's petition that sought the latter's approval to hold a shareholders' meeting.
“The advocates of the company are in receipt of an intimation from advocates of Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC that Amazon has filed an Interim Application in the SLP (Civil) Nos. 13556-13557 of 2021 filed by the company and pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India,” FRL told the stock exchanges in a late evening filing on Wednesday.
In another regulatory filing late on Wednesday, FRL also intimated the stock exchanges about the SIAC latest order that has held that FRL is a “proper party” to the ongoing dispute between Amazon and Future Coupons Pvt. Ltd., the promoter company that owns 9.8% of the BSE-listed FRL.
The Singapore arbitration stems from Future Group’s August 2020 announcement that it had agreed to sell its assets and business on a slump sale basis to Reliance Retail for about Rs 25,000 crore.
Amazon objected to the deal and two months later had approached SIAC for a stay on the deal citing a 2019 investment agreement in FCPL that the US e-commerce giant argued restrained FRL from selling its assets to a dozen of large Indian and global entities including Reliance.
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