Amazon sends legal notice to Future Group for selling stake to Reliance Industries

Amazon confirmed the legal notice, according to TechCrunch.

In August, RIL’s retail arm Reliance Retail acquired Indian conglomerate Future Group’s own retail and wholesale business, as well as its logistics and warehousing arm for US$3.4 billion.

Amazon, however, said the deal “breaches the terms of its contract by selling a significant portion of the business to Ambani’s Reliance Retail.”

Prior to the deal, Amazon acquired a 49% stake in Future Coupons, a promoter group entity of Future Group’s retail business. With the deal, the US ecommerce giant holds a 3.58% stake in the retail arm and the right of first refusal to buy more stakes in the unit, the report said.

Later, Amazon also approached the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) to call off the deal between Reliance Industries and Future Group, ET Tech reported. SIAC, a not-for-profit organization, is a global arbitral institution providing case management services to parties around the world.

This comes after Amazon reportedly expressed interest in a deal to invest US$20 billion in Reliance Retail for a 40% stake. The retail arm has raised more than US$5 billion from leading global investors including Silver Lake, KKR, General Atlantic, Mubadala, GIC, TPG, and ADIA recently. Its ecommerce platform JioMart aims to take on Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart in the country.

Update (October 8, 18:16 pm): This article has been updated to include Amazon’s approaching the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.