OREANDA-NEWS. Essar Energy plc [LSE: ESSR], the India-focused integrated energy company, today announced that its 100% subsidiary Essar Energy Holdings Limited, Mauritius (“EEHL”) has agreed to purchase 32,947,191 shares in Essar Oil Limited, India, representing a 2.41% interest [including Global Depository Securities (“GDS”)], from Imperial Consultants and Securities Private Limited (“Imperial”).

The acquisition is pursuant to a call option agreement entered into with Essar Investments Ltd, which subsequently demerged its investment division to Imperial. The call option agreement was entered into on 6 April 2010 (and amended subsequently). The option was exercised at a price of Rs81.11 per share and the total consideration to be paid for the shares is USD 48,650,039.

Essar Energy’s decision to exercise the option was driven by its desire to consolidate non-public holdings of Essar Oil. Essar Oil owns the world-class Vadinar refinery and a number of upstream exploration and production assets and downstream marketing assets. The purchase is being funded from funds available within Essar Energy.

EEHL has the option to purchase a further 6,215,026 shares in Essar Oil, representing a 0.46% interest (including GDS), from Imperial. This option will expire on 30 June 2014. Whilst EEHL is under no obligation to purchase the remaining shares, it is EEHL’s current intention to do so.