Essar Oil released a statement said that Essar Energy Holdings, which runs the group's oil assets and Essar Investments would acquire 18.14 per cent stake of Essar Oil between April 9 and April 30. The Essar group is also likely to make an announcement regarding its listing plan on LSE.

The announcement of Essar Oil's share transfer among the group companies came amidst its listing plans on the London Stock Exchange. According to the statement released by the Essar Group is led by the Ruias apart from the shares of Essar Oil, the Essar Investment would also acquire some shares of Essar Shipping Ports & Logistics. Speaking on the matter a senior official said, "The move has been undertaken for clear ownership structures and no increase in equity would take place".

Speaking on the company's announcement early last month, on the issue of it exploring the option of a listing on the London Stock Exchange, market analyst Mr. S P Tulsian said, "This is a precursor to the Essar Group's plans to de-list some of the group companies".

According to industry watchers the Group is looking at the listing of a holding company that will have its refinery, power, exploration and production businesses.

The group's energy and power operations are currently valued at about $12 billion. The company is also looking at the option of raising$2.5-3 billion through a stake sale of 20-25 per cent shares of its energy (oil and power) business. The funds are expected to be used to partly finance its estimated Rs 40,000-crore investment plans in the next three to four years. The company has already tied up funds for the first phase of its capacity expansion to 6000Mw from the current level of 1200Mw. The company will require an additional $4.5 billion for the second phase in order to expand the capacity to 11,000Mw.

The Group has also tied up funds to the tune of $1.6 billion for its energy business in order to expand its refining capacity from 10.5 million tonnes to 18 million tonnes. In the next phase, the capacity is sought to be expanded to 34 million tonnes and would require an additional investment of $4 billion.

The Group has been making steady progress towards securing its raw material needs as is evident from the fact that it bought Canada-based Algoma Steel in 2007 and an iron ore mine in Minnesota in 2008. Last month, it acquired Trinity Coal, thus locking both the key raw materials needed to make steel. Its business process outsourcing company, Aegis, also has a significant presence in North America.

According to the Forbes magazine, the Group's promoters Shashi and Ravi Ruia are ranked fifth among India's billionaires, with a wealth of $13.6 billion.

Essar Oil is currently trading at Rs.144.15, up by 0.52% at 2.44 PM.

The stock hit an intraday high of Rs.145.7 till now, as against the 52-week high of Rs.194.The stock hit a low of Rs.143 during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs.82.4 on April 6, 2009.

The stock opens at Rs.144.9 at BSE. The total traded volume of the scrip on BSE till now stood at 940825.

Meanwhile today, the BSE Sensex is trading up by 39.32 points, or 0.22% , at 17975 on 2:44 PM.

The NSE Nifty is trading up by 4.30 points, or 0.08% , at 5372.7.

Essar Oil has an equity capital of Rs 1,202.00 crore as of 2009 Dec. The face value per share is Rs 10. At the current price of Rs 144.15, the P/E multiple stood at 0 with book Value of 28.91 and P/BV at 4.99.

The total shareholding pattern of the company as on Dec 2009 stood at Promoters- 18.14%, Institutional Investors- 4.37%, General Public- 5.31% and other investors- 72.18%.

Considering the current price of Rs. 144.15 at 2:44:00 PM , the stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 06/04/2010 surged -3.26% as compared to the Sensex's return of 5.1% and NSE Nifty's 5.1 % returns.

Considering the current price of Rs. 144.15 at 2:44:00 PM , the stock had underperformed the market over the past one quarter till 06/04/2010 surged -10.02% as compared to the Sensex's return of 2.04% and NSE Nifty's 2.04 % returns.