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India's Essar Group, controlled by billionaire brothers, Shashikant and Ravikant Ruia, is considering delisting all its publicly traded units and plans to sell some assets, sources said. The Group plans to take Essar Ports, Essar Shipping and Essar Oil private over the next couple of years, according to sources, asking not to be identified.

The Ruias are already in the process of delisting Essar Energy Plc from the London Stock Exchange. Mumbai-based Essar Group wants to buy all the shares it doesn't already own in its listed units as it considers them undervalued, sources added. The conglomerate is weighing the sale of international outsourcing operations and a US iron-ore business and might sell additional assets after completing the privatisations, they said.

The Ruia brothers are overhauling Essar Group as Indian family-run companies, including Jaypee Group and GMR Group come under pressure to sell assets after racking up debt. The units Essar Group is seeking to privatise have a combined market value of about $4.4 billion, Bloomberg data show.

Shares of Essar Oil jumped 16 percent in Mumbai trading to close at the highest level since March 2013. Essar Ports also rose 16 per cent, the most in more than two and half years, while Essar Shipping advanced 14 per cent. As a policy, Essar doesn't comment on speculation, it said in an e-mail in response to queries on delisting and the iron ore business.

Source-On Request