‘Amazon seeking to exercise control over Future Retail without owning a stake’

World’s largest e-commerce company Amazon is seeking to derail India’s biggest retail acquisition using an agreement that gave it an indirect foothold in the owner of retail chain Big Bazaar, lawyers and analysts said.

Amazon had in August last year bought 49 per cent in one of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group’s unlisted firms, with the right to buy into the listed flagship Future Retail Ltd (FRL) after a few years and if the government were to undo its bar on foreign ownership of multibrand retailers.

But FRL ran into a severe cash crunch soon after the nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the coronavirus outbreak. It cut a deal with Reliance Industries to sell assets for Rs 24,713 crore, infuriating Amazon.