The shares of Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail plunged by 9.99% on Friday morning following the ruling on Thursday by the Delhi High Court upholding the emergency arbitrator’s award in favour of the Jeff Bezos-led company.
The Future Group however has said that the order would have no impact as the matter is in the Supreme Court.
The shares of Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail Ltd further plunged 9.99% at 11.25 am on Friday, one day after Future Group lost the case against Amazon in the Delhi High Court. The company’s shares were trading at ₹55.85. Over the last year, Future Retail’s share price has more than halved.
The debt-ridden Future Retail, whose business woes worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, had been acquired by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail. This deal has been tangled in legal cases, with an opposition from e-commerce giant Amazon which holds 49% shares. The court also asked Biyani’s Future Group to place on record any action taken by it in connection with the Reliance deal after October 25, 2020, while also slapping a ₹20 lakh fine on the company.
The judgement given by Justice JR Midha said that Future Retail, Future Coupons, Kishore Biyani and others violated the Emergency Award, and also questioned ‘why should they not be detained in prison,’ reported legal news platform Bar & Bench. The High Court also directed Future Group to approach authorities to recall all approvals granted to Future Retail-Reliance deal.
In January 2021, Future Group had moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking an approval to hold its shareholders meeting for the scheme of merging with Reliance group. Future Retail said that “this order does not come in the way of continuance of the ongoing NCLT proceedings”, as the matter is already in the Supreme Court.
“The Hon’ble Supreme Court, in its order in Amazon’s appeal, has not vacated the stay granted by the Hon’ble Division Bench (which stay is still in operation). The Hon’ble Supreme Court has directed that, in the meantime, the NCLT proceedings will be allowed to go on but will not culminate in any final order of sanction of scheme,” said the company.
