While Prashant Ruia, the Chairman of Essar Group, wears a happy look after concluding the long-awaited $12.9 billion deal with Russia’s Rosneft and a consortium led by Trafigura and United Capital Partners (UCP), the Russian partners seem to be less happy.
While 49.13 per cent share in Essar Oil Ltd (EOL) for which Rosneft had to shell out around $3-3.5 billion (considering that debt and other liabilities constitute about a half of the enterprise value of the deal) provide Rosneft with an entry into a “high-potential and fast-growing Asia-Pacific market”, as Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft, and close ally of Vladimir Putin, put it in a statement, the company seems to not yet have any particular vision for the Indian market.
“Now as the deal is signed we will see how to market it and what can be done here,” a member of Rosneft delegation visiting India to mark the deal closure told
Several other delegates who did not want to be identified added that Rosneft, being technically a minor stakeholder would rather keep “lower profile” in the management and operations of EOL. They, too, said the company is not planning to establish any visible presence in India, although some representatives might visit the country from time to time.
Earlier BusinessLine had reported that, according to sources, the deal between Essar Group and Rosneft and its partners had a certain political motive with governments of two countries pushing for it despite the deal being possibly overvalued.
Growing market Rosneft has nominated four members to EOL board – Andrew Balgarnie, current advisor to Rosneft CEO Sechin; Krzysztof Zielicki, ex-Head of the Strategic Development Department (M&A) at Rosneft who stepped down in 2015; Marcus Cooper who was in 2013 General Director of Rosneft Trading based in Geneva, Switzerland, and Alexander Romanov – Director of the Oil Refining Department at Rosneft.
When asked why EOL deal is significant to Rosneft, Krzysztof Zielicki told BusinessLine this transaction establishes relationship with one of the largest growing markets for crude exports from Russia. “The refinery takes its own decisions, Rosneft in no way runs the refinery, but it opens up the market, we can understand the market and which way it goes, huge exports are possible because India is a growing market,” Zielicki added.
Rosneft’s role in the deal might be bigger than it seems, an analyst with Moscow-based think-tank said on conditions of anonymity. Ilya Sherbovich, the founder of UCP, is not a distant figure for Rosneft and Sechin himself. While Sherbovich served on the Board of Directors of Rosneft in 2012-2013, he and Sechin might have close interests in various energy assets, industry watchers say.
According to Moscow-based analysts tracking oil and gas sector, Rosneft has been actively looking at growing its international presence at a time when the company (and its CEO personally) is subject to the Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine.