FRL had been arguing that it has not singed any agreement with Amazon and had maintained that it was FCPL that had signed a shareholder agreement with the US giant while Amazon in 2019 invested about Rs 1,400 crore into FCPL that own about 9.8% in FRL.
There are three different agreements singed at the time of the Amazon’s investment in FCPL. One is between Amazon and FCPL, other between FCPL and BSE-listed FRL and third between FCPL and Future Group.
SIAC ruling has said the three different agreements “must be read together,” the person said. The order came late on Wednesday, he added.
In January, FRL had petition SIAC to exclude it as a party to the arbitration as well as the Indian group had prayed SIAC to remove an October 2020 stay that had restrained FRL from selling its assets to Reliance Retail until the final outcome of the Amazon’s petition.
In July, SIAC had concluded a week-long hearing from both the parties and a judgement to the one of the petitions has come now.
Amazon had moved SIAC in October 2020, barely two months after Future Group said it has agreed to sell its assets and business on a slump sale basis to Reliance Retail for Rs 25,000 crore.
After months of legal battle in India – first in the Delhi High Court and then in the Supreme Court – the focus of the case has shifted back to SIAC after India’s apex court ruled that the interim order by SIAC’s 2020 emergency arbitrator is valid and enforceable in India. The Supreme Court ruling was a setback for Future Group that had for months argued that the SIAC emergency order was not enforceable in India.
