NEW DELHI — As 2020 winds to a close, India’s biggest retail deal of the year hangs in the balance following a Delhi High Court decision that did not — as was widely expected — close out the options for Amazon to continue to fight the acquisition of Future Retail Ltd. by Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.
The deal in question was valued at $3.38 billion. Unveiled on Aug. 30, the acquisition would bring together two of India’s biggest retailers — Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd., which is already the market leader with more than 12,000 brick-and-mortar stores across the country, and the more than 1,700 stores owned by the Future Group.
But it turns out that it’s going to be a long road ahead now, industry analysts and legal experts observed on Monday, anticipating a series of legal maneuvers as the High Court rejected Future Group’s plea. Evoking nationalism, and references to foreign interference, the Future Group has said that the “American giant should not be allowed to kill Future Group” only to “further its illegitimate interest to make sure that Reliance does not get its hands in. That’s its game plan — if I can’t get it, let Reliance not get it, too.” Future Group has been impacted by a major cash crunch, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown in India earlier in the year.