Essar Oil asset sale completed

August 21: A deal was completed today.Essar Oil on Monday has announced the completion of the sale of its India assets to the Russian government controlled Rosneft-led consortium.The value of the deal is $12.9 billion.

Sources say the sale of assets took more than 10 months after it was announced.The deal was announced in the BRICS summit held in Goa in 2016.

Experts say that the transaction got delayed because the lenders wanted their debt worth over Rs. 45,000 crores to be cleared.The deal includes sale of

* 20 million tonne refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat.
* A captive power plant.
* A captive port.
* 3,500 petrol pumps.

Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of State - Independent Charge, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has said that: "I congratulate Essar on the conclusion of the $12.9 billion Essar Oil deal. An asset, which was truly made in India, has attracted investment interest from the world class entities, demonstrating the spirit of dynamic entrepreneurship in India. I welcome Rosneft, Trafigura, and UCP to participate in the India growth story and wish them success."

With the deal, Rosneft Russias largest oil had successfully acquired a 49 percent stake in Essar Oil Ltd.sources said the deal will bring down the company's debt by 60 %.

The company would pay Rs. 70,000 crore to lenders such as SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IDBI Bank and StanChart.
Earlier Trafigura and UCP have also announced they have acquired a separate 49 percent share of Essar Oil.