Future Retail to soon be rebranded as Reliance

Prospective customers were turned back by security, disappointed at the closed state of the store that still carries the signage of Future's biggest brand, Big Bazaar, which will likely soon be rebranded as a Reliance outlet.

Reliance has taken control of operations of some 200 Big Bazaar stores and has plans to seize another 250 of Future's retail outlets. Reliance plans to retain Future's employees at the stores it takes over.

The high-profile bitter dispute between corporate titans in which Amazon has sought to block Reliance's planned $3.4 billion purchase of Future Group's retail assets is currently before India's Supreme Court.

At a Future store in Sonipat town in northern Haryana state, announcements were made asking customers to leave as Reliance seized control. In Vadodara in western Gujarat, Future employees arriving for work the next morning were asked to go back home with no explanation.

Reliance Industries, India's biggest conglomerate run by Mukesh Ambani, presses ahead with a shock de facto takeover of prized retail real estate that Amazon.com Inc has been keen to take part-ownership of. Reliance's sudden possession of the stores appears to have landed as a coup de grace that spoils Amazon's chances of untangling the transfer of Future's assets to Reliance.

Amazon, which has a stake in a separate Future Group unit that it argues prevents Future from selling retail assets without its permission, has called the supermarkets and other stores an "irreplaceable" network in a sector worth $900 billion in revenues annually. Amazon at a Supreme Court hearing unexpectedly called for cordial talks to end the dispute - a proposal Future agreed to.