Amazon Dubs Take Over Of 800 Future Retail Stores By Reliance A 'Sham Transaction'

The ongoing tussle between the American e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. AMZN and Indian retailer Future Retail (FRL) continued in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday (Indian Standard Time).

What Happened: Amazon called the February takeover of 835 Future Retail stores by Mukesh Ambani's conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) a "sham transaction," according to the Economic Times. 

Ambani is India's second-richest person and the world's 11th richest in a list dominated by Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Gopal Subramanium, the senior lawyer representing Amazon, told the Delhi High Court in a hearing on Tuesday that "there was a mysterious switch of the leases."

This came after, in February, the real estate arm of RIL, Reliance Projects & Property Management, terminated sub-leases of about 800 Future Group stores and took possession. It alleged that the Future Group failed to make rental payments for more than a year, amounting to $634.8 million (Rs 4,800 crore). 

Calling it an "absolute lie," Subramanium said Future Retail did manage to pay a $14 million payment on a dollar bond in February to RIL. He further added that Future Retail never disclosed the lease transfer of the 800 stores to Reliance in March 2021, neither to the courts nor to the stock exchanges as regulatory filings until the matter was raised during the court hearings.

Meanwhile, the e-commerce giant Amazon had sought to enforce a Singapore-based arbitral tribunal's order staying the sale of Future Group's retail assets to Reliance Retail.

Price Action: According to data from Benzinga Pro, Amazon shares closed 2.55% lower on Tuesday.