In this episode we discuss the high profile legal tussle between the corporate giants Amazon and Reliance industries over the acquisition of the Future Group. This is a story that has seen a lot of developments in the courts. Most recently, Amazon has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme court, appealing against a recent Delhi High Court order that allowed Future Group to go ahead with a proposed deal to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing assets to Reliance. The Future Group, one of India’s biggest retail companies with popular chains like Big Bazaar, is in deep debt and it contends that the deal with Reliance will help it pay its lenders. Amazon on the other hand has contended that it had a pre-existing agreement with Future Group for the sale of these assets and the deal with Reliance now is in violation of those terms. The larger context of this legal tussle is the fight for the future of India’s retail market and how the two corporate giants are seeking to shape it and take the upper hand. That’s the angle that we’ll discuss in this podcast.
Guest: Thomas K Thomas, Mumbai bureau chief for The Hindu Business Line