Decks cleared: Essar, Rosneft complete $12.9-billion deal
Decks have been cleared for the biggest
foreign acquisition ever in India. The completion of the $12.9-billion Essar Oil
buyout by Russian government-owned Rosneft and other partners is expected to be
announced on Monday. The deal, signed in October 2016, went through a lot of
hiccups, with the lenders to the Ruia-controlled Essar group insisting on
certain conditions.
Among the last to approve the deal was Life
Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. The Mumbai-based Essargroup owed over Rs
2,300 crore to LIC, part of which has been repaid. Around Rs 1,200 crore is
said to be pending.
The Essar group had in October 2016, signed
a deal with Rosneft, United Capital Partners and Trafigura group to sell 98 per
cent equity in Essar Oil. The proceeds from the sale were expected to help the
group reduce its debt, which stood at around $13.5 billion at the time of
signing the deal.
Essar Steel, another group company, is
undergoing insolvency proceedings after the Ahmedabad bench of the National
Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) admitted an insolvency petition against the firm.
The Reserve
Bank of India identified the firm among top 12 stressed assets and
asked the bankers to file for insolvency against the firm. The steel firm has about Rs 45,000-crore debt
on its books with non-performing assets of Rs 32,000 crore in 2016-17.

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