Lenders give nod to ₹86,000crore sale of Essar Oil to Rosneft
LAST LEG Essar aiming to close the deal early next month
The Essar group has crossed the last hurdle to complete the sale of its Gujarat refinery to Russia’s Rosneft, with the lenders, including LIC, giving the go-ahead to the deal, sources said.
With this ₹86,000-crore transaction, which makes it the largest FDI inflow for the country, the company hopes to close the deal by early next month, Essar group sources said.
Asked if the 23 creditors also include LIC, to which the company owes around ₹1,200 crore, an official replied in the affirmative.
It can be noted that LIC’s refusal to give the clearance was one of the biggest stumbling blocks.
The deal was signed on October 15 last year in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Goa on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.
The sale involves the Ruias almost exiting its cash cow in favour of Russian giant Rosneft and a consortium led by Trafigura-UCP.
“The joint lenders forum of 23 lenders, led by SBI and ICICI, met here this morning and approved and authorised the release of shares of Essar Oil to facilitate the stake sale to Rosneft and the investment consortium headed by Trafigura and UCP,” the company source told PTI.
It can be noted that Igor Sechin, the chief executive of Rosneft, had told the company at its AGM on Thursday that the transaction could be “considered as closed”.
Essar Oil operates a 20 million tonne refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, and the deal also involves transferring its over 3,500 oil retail outlets.
The refinery accounts for almost 9% of the country’s total refining output.
The plant also has a 1,010MW captive power plant, and a 58-million tonne deep draft port that helps in importing crude and exporting finished products for the refinery.
Ford India Pvt. Ltd will recall 39,315 units of Fiesta Classic and a previous generation Figo for a “potential concern” related to a high pressure power-assisted steering hose.
“Ford India, through its dealers, will replace the high pressure power-assisted steering hose on all affected vehicles,” the company said in a statement on Friday.
These units were made at the company’s Chennai facility between 2004 and 2012, it added.
The Classic was being sold as the Fiesta since January 2008. It was renamed the Fiesta Classic in July 2011, when the company launched a new model of the Fiesta. The name was shortened to the Classic in July 2012.
“Ford remains committed to delivering world-class quality vehicles to its customers and this voluntary safety recall is part of that commitment,” the statement said.
In 2013, Ford conducted one of the largest recalls in the country when it asked as many as 166,000 owners of the Figo hatchback and Classic sedan to send their cars for an inspection of potential defects in the rear twist beam (RTB) and power steering hose.
German car maker Volkswagen (VW) AG holds the dubious distinction of issuing the country’s largest recall after it called back as many as 13 models and 3.4 lakh vehicles in India as part of a global recall.