The British oil refinery, which was purchased by the company from Royal Dutch Shell for $350m in 2011, is being sold to reduce debts and refocus on its core Indian business, Reuters reported.
Financial Times cited two people familiar with the situation that Essar Energy, subsidiary of the group, has negotiated with potential parties to either sell a minority stake or the entire refining facility.
In order to assess potential options to exit its UK operations, Essar negotiated with possible buyers in the refining and energy sector, as well as potential private equity investors, one of the people familiar with the situation said.
Potential sale of the facility would raise $500-$600m for the company, two of the sources said.
KBC Process technology chief economist Stephen George was quoted by Reuters as saying that, "It would be optimistic in the current margin environment to expect that the asset has increased in value, though Essar have made strides to improve the configuration and margin of Stanlow which may improve the asset value."
