Despite Amazon calling the move “illegal,” Future Retail is planning a shareholder meeting
- ByStartupStory | April 16, 2022
The battle between ecommerce behemoth Amazon and Future Retail Limited (FRL) is far from over. FRL announced on Friday (April 15) that the meeting of its shareholders set for next week complies with orders given by the National Company Law Tribunal, escalating hostilities (NCLT).
“The said order was issued by the NCLT, after considering all of the facts and information submitted by the parties, as well as specific objections filed by Amazon.Com NV Investment Holdings LLC via an intervening application and the order dated 15th February 2022 issued by the Supreme Court on the same subject matter,” FRL said in a regulatory filing.
The comment is significant because the meeting is to approve the sale of FRL’s assets to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL). The announcement comes only days after Amazon sent a veiled threat to FRL, warning them not to hold the meetings. On April 12, Amazon wrote to Kishore Biyani and other FRL promoters, claiming that the shareholders’ meetings were illegal.
It further said that the meetings would violate not just a 2019 agreement in which Amazon invested in FRL’s promoter firm, but also a Singapore arbitral tribunal’s injunction on the sale of retail assets to Reliance.
FRL also made its position on the method for voting on shareholder resolutions explicit, filling in all the gaps. The corporation, run by Kishore Biyani, stated that if any shareholder is restricted owing to a contractual commitment, it will not impair the meetings’ operations. On April 20 and 21, FRL’s shareholders will vote on whether to approve the INR 24,713 crore sale to RIL.
The move comes a month after the NCLT allowed the Future Group permission to call a meeting of its shareholders to seek shareholder approval for the massive merger with RIL.
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