Amazon has finally locked its deal with Kishore Biyani’s Future Group to take a significant stake in one of India’s largest retailers.
On Thursday, Future Retail announced that Amazon had inked a deal to buy almost half of one of its promoter-holding entities, Future Coupons Ltd, with an option to acquire the entire stake in the future. Such a long-awaited deal would let the Seattle-based online retail giant pick up a 4% stake in the flagship Future Retail.
Amazon will also pick up a 49% stake in Future Coupons, which will pick up 7-8% shares in Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail, which owns Big Bazaar and Nilgiris Retail chains. According to sources, Amazon’s stake in Future Coupons is being picked up for about Rs 1,500 crore, giving the company a market capitalization of over Rs 20,700 crore.
Amazon has the right to buy out the entire stake held by Future Coupons in Future Retail in the future. This deal comes after the change in online retail norms in December last year, which had put curbs on global e-Retailers like Amazon. However, Amazon has a ‘call’ option to buy the entire holding in Future Coupons between 2022 and 2029, it said, and at the same time, Biyani has agreed to certain binding agreements over the sale of the 51% stake in Future Coupons.
Additionally, the Seattle-based company; Amazon has launched the Amazon Fresh Store service in Bengaluru, India. The grocery delivery service that was first started in Seattle in 2007 now enables Indian users to simply head to the Amazon India website or the app and order their grocery which will provide 2-hour deliveries to selected PIN codes in Bengaluru.
The service is yet to go live in other cities, for now, it is available in Bengaluru where the deliveries are done through the Amazon Prime Now service between 6 a.m. and midnight.
