Essar Oil is a Public Limited Liability company located in India. Prior to December of 2015, the company was listed and traded on the New York and Bombay Stock Exchanges. Effective December 31, 2015, the company was taken private through a leveraged buyout, resulting in the company being delisted. With a valuation of US$5.9 billion, the buyout was facilitated at a price of US$580 million. In October 2016, Roseneft, a Russian state-owned oil concern, purchase a 98% stake in Essar Oil. The price of the deal was estimated to be US$13.0 billion.
Today, Essar Oil is involved in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. They also maintain operations for the refining of crude oil and market a variety of petroleum products. In 2009, the company became the second largest, non-state refining operations in India with the purchase of a 50% stake in Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd.
In 2012, Essar Oil encountered trouble with the Indian government. The company was sued for three years of back taxes by the tax collecting body of Vadinar, Gujarat, India. Based on the high court’s final decision, three of the company’s main bank accounts were seized to resolve the debt.
Even though the company is now Russian owned, the main headquarters are still maintained in Mumbai, India. They operate under the leadership of the following people: Ravi Ruia, Chairman and Lalit K Gupta, MD, CEO.
While recent financial data is not available, there is some information available for the fiscal year ended 2011. During that fiscal year, operating revenues came in at ₹983.53 billion (US$15 billion). That translated to a net income of ₹21.55 billion (US$330 million before taxes. Additionally, the books showed an asset valuation of ₹210.84 billion (US$3.3 billion) with a majority of it invested in refinery operations.
