Mauritius: The controlling shareholders of Essar Oil Limited (EOL)—Essar Energy Holdings Limited and Oil Bidco (Mauritius) Limited, both companies incorporated and managed under the laws of Mauritius—are pleased to announce the conclusion of the sale of 98.26% of EOL.

Rosneft (through its subsidiary, Petrol Complex Pte. Ltd) has acquired 49.13% stake, and Trafigura-UCP consortium (through Kesani Enterprises Company Limited) has acquired an equal stake. The remaining 1.74% stake continues to be held by retail shareholders.

The deal includes EOL’s 20 MTPA Vadinar Refinery (complexity index of 11.8), its pan-India network of over 3,500 retail outlets (representing India’s largest private sector retail network), as well as the associated refinery infrastructure. The transaction perimeter also includes the Vadinar Port in Gujarat (capacity of 58 million tonnes with world-class dispatch and storage facilities) and the Vadinar power plant in Gujarat (a 1,010 MW state-of-the art, multi-fuel unit that supplies both power and steam to the Vadinar refinery).

Essar Energy in its statement said, “following this transaction, Essar has now helped attract more than US$30 billion of foreign investments into India. Previously, in 2007, Essar Group, together with Hutchison Whampoa, brought Vodafone into India in a US$11.1 billion transaction.”

This transaction concluded today was initiated in the presence of Prime Minister Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. This investment represents Russia’s single largest foreign investment made anywhere in the world. It is also the single largest foreign investment in India.

Essar Energy in its statement thanked the Government of India, respective regulatory bodies and company’s investment banking partner VTB Capital. Essar Energy also thanked Essar EOL’s lenders—State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, and rest of the consortium.

Essar Founder Mr Shashi Ruia said: “I congratulate Rosneft, Trafigura and UCP for investing in a world-class oil business, which we are proud to have built.”

Mr Prashant Ruia, Director, Essar Capital, said: “We have substantially deleveraged our portfolio companies’ balance sheets, reducing debt by over US$ 11 billion (Rs 70,000 crore). With the completion of our capex programme, we now look forward to a period of growth in our wider portfolio of businesses.”

Commenting on the closing of the transaction, Rosneft CEO, Mr Igor Sechin stated: “the Company has entered the high-potential and fast-growing Asia-Pacific market. The acquisition of the stake in the Vadinar refinery creates unique opportunities of synergies with existing Rosneft-owned assets and will help improve efficiency of supply to other countries within the region.”

Mr Jeremy Weir, CEO of Trafigura, commented: “Our stake in Essar Oil also complements Trafigura’s growing presence in India at a time when the country’s economic outlook is positive.”

Mr Ilya Sherbovich, Managing Partner of UCP Investment Group, commented: “we will oversee the growth potential of Essar Oil to increase the long-term value of the company.”

Mr Yuri Soloviev, First Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank, said: “India has become a core strategic market for the VTB Group and we look forward to working further with Essar and our broader Indian clients to further expand our franchise in the future.”