MUMBAI: Reliance, India’s biggest retailer, on Saturday canceled its $3.4 billion deal with Future Group, saying it ‘cannot be implemented’ after Future’s secured creditors rejected it .
The deal had been at the center of legal battles since 2020 after Future’s partner Amazon.com Inc. legally blocked it, citing breach of certain contracts. Future has denied any wrongdoing.
In a public filing on Saturday, Reliance said the deal could no longer proceed because “Future Retail’s secured creditors voted against it.”
Future Retail and Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Future’s secured lenders rejected the deal on Friday, and the company, once India’s second-biggest retailer with more than 1,500 outlets, now faces the prospect of a bankruptcy process.
Future’s downfall is “an unfortunate event,” one of the sources with direct knowledge of the dispute said on Saturday.
India hit hard by Indonesian palm oil export ban
Indonesia’s decision to ban the export of palm oil is expected to hit India hard, which is heavily dependent on the world’s largest producer of palm oil.
The announcement will hurt consumers in India and around the world, said Atul Chaturvedi, chairman of trade body Solvent Extractors Association of India.
“This decision is rather unfortunate and completely unexpected,” he said.
Indonesia’s new palm oil export ban will hurt other countries but is needed to try to bring down the domestic price of cooking oil, driven by Russia’s war in Ukraine, it said on Friday. the Indonesian finance minister told Reuters.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati said with demand outstripping supply, the ban announced earlier on Friday is “one of the toughest measures” the government could take after previous measures failed to stabilize domestic prices.
China and India are among the major importers of palm oil from Indonesia, which accounts for more than half of the world’s supply. Palm oil is used in products ranging from cooking oils to processed foods, cosmetics and biofuels.
Britain and India aim for free trade deal
Britain and India agreed on Friday to step up cooperation on defense and business during a visit to New Delhi by Boris Johnson, who said a bilateral free trade deal could be concluded by October.
During his first visit to the Indian capital as British Prime Minister, Johnson discussed with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi ways to strengthen security ties with India, which buys more than half of its military equipment from India. Russia.
India’s foreign secretary, however, said Johnson had not pressured Modi over New Delhi’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Prime Minister Johnson shared his view on this, Prime Minister Modi shared ours – that the Russian-Ukrainian war should end immediately,” Harsh Vardhan Shringla told reporters. “There was no pressure of any kind.”
India abstained in a United Nations vote condemning the invasion of Ukraine and, unlike Britain and other Western countries, did not impose sanctions on Moscow, which calls Russia’s actions in Ukraine a “special military operation”.
Johnson said after meeting Modi India was unlikely to end its longstanding ties with Russia.
(With contributions from Reuters)