Essar Group Concludes Sale of Assets Worth Over $2 Billion, Becomes Debt Free In India

Essar Group has completed the sale of its captive ports and power assets located in Hazira and Paradip to Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel India Limited. The sale, which consisted of a 270 MW power plant and 25 MPTA at Hazira, Gujarat, and a 12 MPTA port at Paradip, Odisha, was settled for $2.05 billion (Rs 16,500 crores). The deal marks the conclusion of the Essar Group’s asset monetisation programme, making it a debt-free company.

“Essar Ports & Terminals Ltd (EPTL) and Essar Power Ltd (EPL) concluded the USD 2.05 billion sales of captive ports and power assets located in Hazira and Paradip to AM/NS,” the company said in a statement.

Over the years, the multinational company, owned by the Ruia family, has sold some of its assets in the telecom, oil refining, and steel infrastructure to clear off its $25 billion debt.

Prashant Ruia, Director of the financial services arm of the Group, Essar Capital, stated that the deal has led to the conclusion of Essar’s asset monetisation programme. With this, the company has “completed the debt repayment of $25 billion (Rs 2,00,000 crore), effectively making the group debt-free from Indian banks and financial institutions.”

The Director of EPTL, Rewant Ruia, highlighted that the asset monetisation took place in a systematic manner. He said, “in a planned and strategic manner, we have monetised assets that we built over the last 30 years.”

Speaking of the company’s pathway ahead, he said that the focus is now on reinvesting in existing operations and in gaining new assets, not only in India but overseas as well. Essar Group aims to fit these assets into a sustainable model, intending for them to be powered by more efficient and carbon-neutral new-age technologies.

Despite the multi-billion-dollar sales over the past few years, Essar remains a prominent name and holds substantial operating assets in all its core verticals. These comprise the fields of energy, metals and mining, infrastructure and Logistics, and technology and retail. The group presently boasts revenues of approximately US$ 15 billion (~Rs 1.2 lakh core) and assets under management of c.US$ 8 billion (Rs 64,000 crore) globally.

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