NEW DELHI :
Future Retail Ltd (FRL) positioned false statements earlier than numerous courts and colluded with Reliance Industries Ltd to consummate their ₹24,713 crore takeover deal, US e-commerce large Amazon.com Inc has alleged in a petition filed earlier than the Supreme court docket on Saturday.
A duplicate of the petition was reviewed by Mint.
Amazon alleged that FRL by no means disclosed to a court docket or inventory trade that after the Singapore Worldwide Arbitration Centre’s (SIAC) order in October 2020, restraining FRL from coming into into any take care of Reliance, it made sub-lease preparations with the Mukesh Ambani-led group to function a minimum of 835 retail shops underneath Massive Bazaar. In actual fact, simply 11 days earlier than Reliance took shock management of the Massive Bazaar shops, FRL informed the courts on 15 February that each one retail shops would proceed to be vested with FRL until the deal was authorised by the Nationwide Firm Legislation Tribunal (NCLT), based on the petition.
FRL has performed an elaborate and orchestrated fraud to obtain beneficial orders by constantly making false assurances in relation to the continued vesting of its retail shops with FRL, Amazon alleged.
The corporate additionally entered into preparations with Reliance to alienate its retail shops in favour of the Mumbai-based conglomerate in a clandestine method to make sure the impugned transaction goes by even earlier than NCLT’s ultimate order, Amazon alleged.
“FRL has not proven any doc to show that December 2020 January 2021 onwards, the lessors of the (Massive Bazaar) shops’ premises started terminating the leases on account of non-payment of lease leases by FRL …In actual fact, the purported give up deeds filed by FRL display that lease deeds had been being surrendered voluntarily and never on account of any failure to pay lease leases,” it added.
“It is usually unbelievable that there are not any registered lease deeds entered by the landlords and MDA (Mukesh Ambani) group or between FRL and MDA group. The above information display that MDA group is an confederate to the orchestrated fraud dedicated on the courts and Indian statutory authorities,” Amazon stated.
E mail queries despatched to spokespeople for Future Group and Amazon remained unanswered. An e mail despatched to Reliance late on Sunday searching for remark wasn’t answered instantly.
Whereas the lease deeds had been being transferred from landlords to RIL because the lessor, FRL had stated throughout FY21 that it “didn’t have the cash to clear the lease rental dues and stop termination of leases with the landlords”. “However in its annual report, FRL talked about that it had sufficient cash to fulfill all lease obligations.”
On 31 December 2021, FRL stated “the working efficiency of FRL has been enhancing subsequent to the relief of the covid-led lockdown since July 2021, and revenues rose by 66% sequentially and 60% from a 12 months earlier to ₹2,349 crore within the quarter ended 30 September 2021.
In January, FRL stated it didn’t have cash to repay lease leases, however once more on 18 February, FRL paid $14 million curiosity to bondholders on FRL’s 5.6% senior secured notes due in 2025. “The solitary fee was enough to make out a transparent case of falsehood and obstruction of justice,” Amazon stated.
It has now stated it had entered into “depart and license” agreements with Reliance Initiatives and Property Administration Providers Ltd in respect of sure retailer premises and didn’t enter into any settlement for the remaining shops. “That is an unbelievable assertion as which means that a listed entity (FRL) which operates India’s second largest offline retail enterprise entered into preparations with MDA Group that operates India’s largest offline enterprise, with out even coming into into formal agreements for working such premises,” Amazon alleged.
Supply: Live Mint