Promoters infuse Rs 1.3k cr in Essar Oil

The promoters were issued and allotted 92,844,531 preferential equity shares of Rs 10 each (face value number of GDS), fully paid up at a price of Rs144 per share in favour of the overseas depository, the Bank of New York Mellon, Essar Oil informed the exchanges on Tuesday. The fund infusion follows an approval from Essar Oil shareholders at an extraordinary general body meeting on April 22. The company had said then that funds would be raised by issue of ADRs/GDRs/FCCBs totalling $1.7 billion to the promoters on a preferential offer basis.

Earlier, the Essar Oil promoters had infused $300 million into the company.

The two instances of infusion of funds are part of the equity contribution made by the promoters to finance the first phase of the ongoing refinery expansion programme at EOL, which includes enhancement of the refining capacity from 300,000 barrels per stream day (bpsd) to 375,000 bpsd, with the complexity being increased from 6.1 to 11.8.

?The total committed cost of this expansion is $1.7 billion. With this latest funding, the equity required for the purpose of Phase I refinery expansion has now been fully tied up,? the company said in a statement.

As part of a fundraising initiative, Essar is looking at raising up to $2.5 billion to fund its expansion in the oil & gas and power verticals by listing on the London Stock Exchange through an entity called

Essar Energy. The listing will be done through the issue of new shares equivalent to 20-25% of the promoter shareholding in Essar Energy, the company said.