Essar finally paid off his loan. For more than $2 billion, the Group sold three infrastructure assets—two ports and a power plant—to Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel India. End of a difficult phase, tweeted Prashant Ruia, Shashi Ruia's eldest son and director of Essar Capital. Looking back, I'm pleased that we were able to meet our obligations and monetize some of our top-tier assets. Moreover, the start of a new chapter.
Essar Group was not erected on sand, to start with. People who were writing Essar obituaries did not consider the underlying assets; they simply saw debt figures. The Group built quality asset after excellent asset using bank advances and loans. Aditya Mittal, a descendant of Arcelor Mittal, made a statement at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2018 that stands as a powerful testament to Essar's project quality. In the form of Essar Steel, the Ruias, according to Mittal, had constructed a steel plant of the highest calibre with enormous room for growth.