Leaders applaud closure of$12.9 billion Essar Oil-Rosneft, Trafigura & UCP deal

GNN | Aug 22, 2017, 3:51 PM IST|

Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State, Petroleum & Natural Gas

“I congratulate Essar on the conclusion of the US$12.9 billion Essar Oil deal. An asset, which was truly Made in India, has attracted investment interest from world-class entities, demonstrating the spirit of dynamic entrepreneurship in India. I welcome Rosneft, Trafigura and UCP to participate in the India growth story and wish them success.”

Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog
“With Essar successfully concluding the $12.9 billion Essar Oil deal, Rosneft and the Trafigura-led consortium will now be an active partner in India's glowing growth story and give a major impetus to India's oil sector in the international market. It also symbolises a unique collaborative partnership with Russia and the fact that India is the most attractive investment destination in the world today. I welcome these great global companies to our country and wish them success in their journey.”

Deepak Parekh, Chairman, HDFC
“This is a landmark deal and deserves to be lauded. It reiterates the confidence of long-term foreign investors wanting to partake in the India growth story. It also demonstrates the strong resolve of the Indian and Russian governments in strengthening economic, strategic and diplomatic ties. Essar has brought this challenging deal to its logical conclusion and this will provide the impetus to the group's restructuring and deleveraging endeavours.”

V Srinivasan, Deputy MD, Axis Bank
"The Essar Oil–Rosneft transaction clearly is a milestone in foreign strategic investment in India. It reinforces India’s status as an attractive destination for investment and acquisition of high quality assets. The monetisation that this transaction achieves will also help in triggering more such transactions and will help the Essar group in deleveraging its balance sheet.”

Rana Kapoor, MD&CEO, Yes Bank
“This is an outstanding FDI development—distinctly the largest ever in India under the finest leadership of our great and honourable Prime Minister. This also augurs extremely well for further augmentation of India-Russia's reinvigorated economic and trade relations as demonstrated by Rosneft the second largest sovereign owned petroleum company leading this investment consortium. This is a red letter day in India's foreign investment history and should prove to be an inflection point in further catalysing capital and investment formation in our country, India!”

Rajeev Gupta, MD, Arpwood Capital
“We are happy to be associated with Essar on a truly global sized M&A transaction. This deal has opened up global M&A market for Indian assets. As advisors to Essar Energy, this much talked about deal has been a privileged mandate for Arpwood. What delivered the deal at the end of the day was the quality of the refinery asset and its management, and the tenacity of the deal team at Essar Energy. Essar has been known for its ability to create value in diversified businesses and prove the value by attracting investments of historic scale. Its sagacity to monetise its investments at the right time and at the right price to further consolidate its wide portfolio of investments must be lauded.”

Vishal Kampani, MD & CEO, JM Financial
At an enterprise value of $12.9 billion, this transaction stands out for being the largest ever acquisition in India. At the same time, it is also the largest investment made by Russia anywhere in the world. As one can imagine, given the mouth-watering sums and the number of parties involved, the complexities in getting this deal across the finish line were huge. This deal is a milestone in Essar Group’s history and, under Rosneft’s stewardship, the business is poised to move into its next phase of growth. My congratulations to Essar Group, Rosneft, Trafigura and United Capital Partners and all those who worked so hard to see the deal through to completion and realise the shared vision of all parties involved. JM Financial is proud to be associated with this landmark transaction.