By Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Dispute settlement talks between Amazon.com Inc and India’s Future Retail broke due to disagreement over the U.S. group’s demand for the return of at least $200 million it had invested in the Indian firm, two sources told Reuters.
Amazon has for months blocked the $3.4 billion sale of Future’s retail assets to rival Reliance, announced in 2020, citing a breach of certain contracts. Future denied any wrongdoing, and hopes had risen recently of an out-of-court settlement after Amazon and Future agreed to talks.
On Tuesday, the two sides told India’s Supreme Court, which is hearing the dispute, the talks had collapsed, and Amazon took out newspaper ads criticising both Reliance and Future.
Two sources with direct knowledge of the settlement talks told Reuters that Amazon representatives informed Future the dispute could end if the U.S. company could get back at least $200 million it invested in a Future unit in 2019 – the transaction at the heart of ongoing legal disputes.
Future instead offered a stake of an equivalent amount in one of its remaining group companies after Reliance takes over most of its retail assets, saying it was financially distressed. But Amazon did not accept that, the sources said.
Future and Amazon did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi; Editing by Mark Potter)
