Amazon-Future Group Deal Gets Competition Regulator’s Approval
CCI has given its go-ahead to Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings’s proposal to acquire 49 percent stake in Future Coupons.
The Competition Commission of India on Thursday gave its go-ahead to Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings’s proposal to acquire about 49 percent stake in Future Coupons Ltd., a promoter group entity of Future Retail Ltd.
Promoters of Future Group had in August entered into an agreement with Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC, which allowed the U.S.-based e-commerce major to acquire 49 percent in Future Coupons.
Amazon Now, the online retail giant’s grocery platform, is testing two-hour delivery of goods from 18 Future Group-owned Big Bazaar stores in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai, according to company executives who spoke on condition of anonymity. The two retailers plan to scale it up to 12 cities in the next phase and eventually extend to all Big Bazaar stores across the country, the people said.
After the stake sale, the firms have set a revenue target of $1 billion from new business coming in from Amazon Now and Big Bazaar partnership by 2021, they said, adding that Future Group’s fast-moving consumer goods arm will also leverage the partnership as an alternate channel for selling its in-house brands.
The promoters have given a call option to Amazon to acquire all or part of the promoter shareholding in Future Retail, exercisable between third and tenth year after entering into an agreement.