Future Group said that the regulator’s order barring chief executive Kishore Biyani from the securities market is unlikely to impact its sale of a swathe of retail assets to Reliance Industries in a $3.4 billion deal.
The group also challenged the ban which also bars brother Anil Biyani for a year, saying that the order is untenable. Moreover, the order barred Kishore from trading in Future Retail shares for two years.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had also directed that Future Corporate Resources and the two brothers will each need to pay a penalty of Rs 1 crore ($137,099) within 45 days.
The move comes after SEBI investigated insider trading in shares of Future Group’s retail firm Future Retail in 2017.
The group said that the order treats an anticipated and well-known impending reorganisation of the home furnishing businesses as unpublished information, and that the ban will be challenged.
The ban comes after a court blocked Future Group's sale of the swathe of assets to Reliance Industries on Tuesday following objections by Amazon to the $3.4 billion deal.
In response, Future Group said in a court filing on Wednesday against Amazon that if it cannot sell the assets, its retail unit would go bankrupt.
Future Group, which operates supermarkets and high-end food stores across India, agreed to sell its retail assets to oil-to-clothes conglomerate Reliance in August for $3.4 billion but Amazon has alleged the deal breached agreements Future had made with the ecommerce giant in 2019.
