Amazon claims Future Retail revealed price-sensitive details of the arbitration to Reliance
In the midst of ongoing scuffle between Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com and Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail, Reuter’s now reviewed some of the classified email, which stated that the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India warned Future Retail privately of untimely market disclosures, thereby risking the regulatory action. A complaint has been filed to the stock exchange by Amazon that accuses Future of deceiving the public by making false market disclosure.
A couple of weeks back, Future filed a lawsuit in the Delhi high court against Amazon to prevent the latter from misusing the Singapore interim order and forcibly interfering the Rs 24,713-crore deal between Future and Reliance. Amazon has won the interim injunction passed by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), but it is filled with numerous barriers if it takes legal recourse to implement SIAC’s order in India.
If the US-based e-commerce files petition and if Future and Reliance do not agree to the SIAC’s interim injunction then Indian court will also pass similar order given the treaty of reciprocity with Singapore. Amazon already has 49% stake in Future coupon and hence it has an indirect holding in Future Retail.
Coming to the subject of unreported emails exchanged between Future and NSE, a lot of requests were sent to the latter to provide more details of the arbitration order, to look for more accurate details of the possible impact on the Reliance deal, lenders, and the financials. Even, Future Retail has been questioned by the stock exchange for not divulging the outset of the arbitration proceedings to which Future responded that the revealing of the proceedings wasn’t needed.
According to the report of Reuters, NSE’s listing compliance division rejected that argument. It demanded a series of disclosures be made within hours, “failing which appropriate actions may be initiated”, the emails showed.Virendra Samani, Future Retail’s Company Secretary, answered most of NSE’s queries in a late night e-mail on October 30, saying it was doing so “in the best interest of all stakeholders”, the communications showed.
Amazon on the other hand, requested India’s market regulator to investigate Future’s insider trading. Before filing exchange towards the end of October, Future is alleged to have revealed price-sensitive details of the arbitration to Reliance.
