ICICI Bank surges on Essar-Rosneft deal

ICICI Bank has surged nearly 6% to Rs 256 on the BSE in intra-day trade after the Ruias of the Essar group on Saturday signed a binding agreement with Russia’s Rosneft, United Capital Partners and Trafigura Group Pte. to sell 98% in its most priced asset, the 20 million tonnes per annum Vadinar refinery and Vadinar port in Gujarat.

According to Business Standard report, the proceeds of the sale will be used to repay loans of both foreign and local lenders, which was around Rs 88,000 crore, Ruia said.

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, said, “I welcome the announcement. This deal is the largest ever foreign acquisition in India. It proves the attractiveness of the Indian energy market to foreign investors as India is one of the fastest growing fuel consuming economies in the world. This deal is also a significant step in the process of deleveraging the balance sheets of Indian corporates. ICICI Bank has been closely working with various companies, including the Essar Group, to help them deleverage their stressed balance sheets. We will continue working towards this objective with others,” added report.

At 10:02 am, the stock was up 5.5% at Rs 255 on the BSE. The counter has seen huge trading volumes with a combined 17.71 million shares changed hands so far against an average around 17.5 million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks on the BSE and NSE.

ICICI Bank