Tag: amazon

Today (9th Sept.2021) The Supreme Court of India stayed all the proceedings before the Delhi High Court for four weeks related to the implementation of an award by Singapore's Emergency Arbitrator (EA) restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from going ahead its Rs 24,731 crore merger deal with Reliance Retail. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, in a consent order, also directed the statutory authorities like National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Competition Commission of India (CCI), and market regulator Sebi not to pass any final order related to the merger deal for next four weeks. It considered the statements of senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for FRL and Future Coupons Private Ltd (FCPL) respectively, that the arbitrator has reserved the final verdict in the case after hearing both sides. Read more

India’s apex court on Friday ruled in favor of Amazon, as Reliance cannot go ahead with its 24,713 crore deal to buy Future Groups retail assets. The court backed an arbitrator's decision to pause the deal in the Jeff Bezos Vs Mukesh Ambani legal fight. The verdict comes as a big win for e-commerce giant Amazon in the battle for the large Indian market. The US-based company had filed pleas against the merger of Future Retail Ltd (FRL) with Reliance Retail.The Indian Supreme Court said the order by a Singapore arbitration court last year which had ruled to stall the deal between the two Indian giants is enforceable in India.Reliance Retail said a year ago it had reached an agreement with Future Group to acquire the latter’s retail and wholesaler business, as well as its logistics and warehousing business, for $3.4 billion. Read more

Shares of Kishore Biyani-led Future group companies, on Friday, were locked in their respective lower circuit, with no buyers seen on the counters, after the Delhi High Court upheld the Emergency Award passed against the $3.4-billion Future-Reliance deal. The company's shares plummeted a day after the Delhi High Court upheld the Emergency Award (EA) order passed by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) against Future Retail's Rs 24,713 crore deal with a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). As part of the deal, Reliance was supposed to acquire Future’s retail, logistics and warehousing businesses. But global e-commerce giant Amazon had opposed the Future-RIL deal soon after it was announced last year and subsequently secured the EA award against the deal from the Singapore arbitrator. Not just Future Retail but shares of several other Future Group companies fell on the stock market.

Amazon.com Inc. and RIL’s fight for dominance of India’s e-commerce space is turning into a face-off, with both sides battling over the assets of a supermarket chain that could be key to their wider ambitions. Ambani and Jeff Bezos want the stores and warehouses of Future Retail Ltd., which has penetrated Indian cities and small towns with sales of everything from grocery to fashion and electronics. Amazon, which owns a stake in a Future unit, and Reliance have in recent months made pacts with the Future Group, which they say are now being violated. Amazon wants to block Reliance’s purchase of Future’s brick-and-mortar assets because such a deal would give Ambani unparalleled dominance in the only billion-people economy open to foreign firms. Bezos has bet more than $6 billion on India, and Future’s assets will allow it to reach small towns that house key consumers in a market estimated to swell to $1 trillion.

Verizon Communications Inc(US wireless carrier) and Amazon.com Inc may invest more than $4 billion for a stake in India's Vodafone Idea Ltd, the Mint newspaper reported today (3rd Sept.2020), sending shares of Vodafone Idea up 10 percent. Vodafone Idea's stake-sale talks had been paused pending the outcome of a court hearing in India, which created uncertainty and could have threatened Vodafone Idea's survival, Mint reported, citing two unnamed people aware of the negotiations. But Amazon and Verizon are set to resume discussions following a Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday which gave mobile carriers 10 years to settle government dues.

Amazon.com Inc has added insurance and gold to its menu of financial services in India, to expand its customer base and attract more subscribers to its Prime loyalty programme. The push ramps up the competition as financial technology (fin-tech) rivals and their deep-pocketed foreign backers struggle for profitability in a predominantly cash-based economy where about 190 million adults do not have bank accounts. To boost online payments, Amazon launched its Amazon Pay digital wallet in 2016. It has since introduced a credit card, signed up to a state-backed payments network, and processes payments for movie and flight tickets as well as telephone and utility bills. It began offering auto insurance in July and gold investment products in August - both a first for Amazon. Read more

Amazon.com is in early-stage talks to buy a stake worth at least $2 billion in mobile operator Bharti Airtel, according to sources. The planned investment, if completed, would mean Amazon acquiring a roughly 5% stake based on the current market value of Bharti, which is India's third-largest telecoms company with more than 300 million subscribers. The discussions between Amazon and Bharti come at a time when global players are placing major bets on the digital arm of Reliance Industries, which owns Bharti's telecom rival Jio. Reliance's digital unit has raised $10 billion in recent weeks from Facebook, KKR, and others. The talks between Bharti and Amazon are at an early stage and the deal terms could change, or an agreement may not be reached, according to the sources.

Amazon is all set to start its food delivery business in India from Bengaluru next month, as per a Economic Times report. The launch of the service, which would be offered as part of either Amazon’s Prime Now or Amazon Fresh platform, may happen almost in a month. Amazon will have to compete with estabished players such as Zomato and Swiggy. This will be a joint venture between Infosys cofounder NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures and Amazon India.Amazon's entry in the food delivery business comes at a time when Zomato and Swiggy have started cutting back on discounts.Last month, Bezos told the audience at an Amazon event in New Delhi that the company plans to invest $1 billion in India.