In a letter sent to the independent directors on Thursday evening, Amazon said the attempt made by independent directors of Future Retail to question PE firm Samara Capital’s term sheet “reveals that the statements are being made at the behest of Future’s promoters’ and to protect their “mala fide action”.
“Consequently, your attempt to now question the Samara Term Sheet and the background of Samara only demonstrates that your statements are being made at the behest of Promoters to protect their mala fide action of reneging from the Samara Term Sheet and concluding the Impugned Transaction,” read Amazon India’s letter to Future Retail’s independent directors on January 27. ET has reviewed the letter.
This comes after ET reported on January 23, that independent directors of Future Retail have decided
to not accept Amazon India’s request to allow an expedited due diligence from Samara Capital, the US-based ecommerce company.
The US-based etailer, in a letter to the independent directors on January 23, had also said Samara Capital had “reiterated” that it remained committed to the term sheet signed on June 15, 2020, which proposed a “purchase consideration” of Rs 7,000 crore for the retailer.
On Thursday evening, Amazon again pushed the independent directors to offer assistance to Future Retail’s records. “We once again call upon you to consider our offer of assistance and provide access to FRL’s records for conducting the due diligence as expeditiously as possible. We call upon you once again to share any such report(s) by tomorrow, i.e., January 28, 2022,” Amazon India said in its letter.
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Ravindra Dhariwal, one of Future Retail’s three independent directors, however, described Amazon’s offer as a “smokescreen”, and said it was untenable.
“All the diligence has been done to death—by Reliance Retail—and by the banks as part of the OTR process. Their diligence request is just smoke and mirrors,” Dhariwal told ET earlier. “Their intent is clear: They want to say in media headlines that they can solve the problem and we are not allowing them. They want to stand up in the courts and claim they have a solution.”
Last week, cash-strapped Future Retail was planning to approach the Supreme Court on Monday seeking an extension for its Rs 3,500 crore repayment to lenders, which is due on January 29.
