Amazon warns Future Retail against holding meetings to approve assets sale to Reliance

Future has convened a shareholders' meeting on April 20 and that of creditors on April 21

Amazon has warned Future Retail Ltd. (FRL) against holding meetings of its shareholders and creditors next week to approve the sale of its retail assets to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail.

In a 16-page letter to Kishore Biyani and other promoters on April 12, the U.S. e-commerce giant said such meetings are illegal and would not only breach 2019 agreements when Amazon made investments into FRL's promoter firm but also violate a Singapore arbitral tribunal's injunction on the sale of retail assets to Reliance.

The letter signed by a representative of Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC asked the Biyani group to strictly abide by the injunctions granted by the Emergency Arbitrator and "ensure that no further steps are taken to proceed" with the transaction.

Future has convened a shareholders' meeting on April 20 and that of creditors on April 21 to seek their approval for the proposed ₹24,713 crore-deal with Reliance.

The move follows the February 29 order of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), in line with a February 15 Supreme Court order, that permitted Future Group companies to convene a shareholders' and creditors' meeting.

Amazon, however, believes such meetings are illegal.

"Any attempt to defeat the injunctions and seek to vote on the basis of forged documents, in light of Amazon's categorical denial that it has not given its consent to either the directors of Future Coupons Pvt. Ltd. (FCPL) or any representatives of FCPL or the promoters would amount to taking cognizance of a forged document with the intent to deceive and cheat, which would render all parties, whether acting directly or abetting such act liable to actions in accordance with law," it said.