Russia's Rosneft consortium acquires India's Essar Oil for USD 12.9 billion

MUMBAI: The Ruias-run Essar Oil today announced the completion of sale of its India assets to the Russian government controlled Rosneft-led consortium for USD 12.9 billion.

The deal includes the Russian company-led consortium, including Oil Bidco and a fund led by Trafigura-UCP.

Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, will get a 49.13 percent stake in Essar and the Trafigura-UCP consortium via Kesani Enterprises Company Limited will get another 49.13 percent stake.

The deal comes more than 10 months after it was announced on October 15 last year on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Goa.

The transaction got delayed after the lenders wanted their debt worth over Rs 45,000 crore to be cleared.

The Essar Oil-Rosneft deal is the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country till date and also the largest outbound investment from Russia.

The deals includes sale of its 20 million tonne refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat and a captive power plant and captive port as well as over 3,500 petrol pumps.

The company director, Prashant Ruia, said the firm will pay back as much as Rs 70,000 crore to lenders, including SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IDBI Bank and StanChart, among others.

This will bring down the group's debt by over 60 per cent.

"Together with our partners we intend to support the company to significantly improve its financial performance and, in the medium term, adopt an asset development strategy," Rosneft cited its CEO Igor Sechin as saying in a statement.

(With inputs from PTI)