Amazon.com Inc. has hired law firm AZB Partners to challenge Future Group’s sale of its retail business to Reliance Industries Ltd, a media report said.
AZB will represent the American e-commerce giant at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, Mint reported, citing two people directly aware of the matter. Future Group has hired Harish N Salve for the arbitration.
P&A Law Office will also advise Amazon, going by The Economic Times.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance had agreed to acquire Future Group’s retail business in a $3.4-billion deal.
However, Amazon says the sale violates the e-commerce giant’s 2019 investment agreement in Future Coupons Ltd, a promoter company of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group.
Amazon indirectly owns about 5% in Future Retail after buying 49% of Future Coupons for Rs 1,500 crore last year.
Meanwhile, the government will seek in-principle approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs to lower its 47.11% stake in IDBI Bank, The Economic Times reported, citing an official it didn’t name.
Life Insurance Corporation of India, which holds 51% of IDBI Bank, is also keen on selling its stake, the report said.
The CCEA approval is likely to be sought within this month, the report said, adding that the contours of the transaction will be decided by a group of ministers after the cabinet’s clearance.
In another development, digital bookkeeping startup OkCredit is exploring merger and acquisition opportunities and has held initial talks with its rival Khatabook and others including BharatPe and Udaan, Entrackr reported.
OkCredit is looking for a valuation of over $150 million, the report said, citing four sources it didn’t identify.
The report also said that OkCredit’s main backer, Lightspeed, had talks with Khatabook through Sequoia Capital. Khatabook even offered a deal in the range of $100 million but it didn’t work out, the report added.
OkCredit had last year raised about Rs 480 crore in a Series B round of funding led by Lightspeed and Tiger Global.
Meanwhile, Manoj K Singh, the founding partner of law firm Singh & Associates, has been raided by the Income Tax Department, the Legally India website reported, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.
Singh was last month elected as chairman of the Delhi bar council’s executive committee.
The report said that tax officials searched 38 properties in Delhi, Haryana and the national capital region, and that they recovered Rs 5.5 crore in cash apart from “incriminating documents of unaccounted cash transactions and investments”. The tax department didn’t name the target of its search operation.
According to the report, the tax department alleged that the target received Rs 117 crore from a client in cash but showed only Rs 21 crore in his records. In another case, the target received more than Rs 100 crore in cash from an infrastructure and engineering company for its arbitration proceedings with a public-sector company, the report said, citing the tax department.
