Four years after picking up Electrosteel Steels Ltd to mark its entry into the steel industry, the Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Group has decided to sell the business. This will help it to focus on its core mining and industrial businesses and deleverage the balance sheet, which had a debt of $11.7 billion at March-end.

The group has reportedly approached steel companies such as ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS), Tata Steel, JSW and Jindal Steel and Power. Top executives like ArcelorMittal chief executive Aditya Mittal have also visited the site in recent weeks.

Vedanta Group said it did not want to comment on market speculation. ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel and JSW declined to comment.

“We don’t have any acquisitions under evaluation currently,” Tata Steel CFO Koushik Chatterjee told The Economic Times.

Vedanta beat Tata Steel, whose facilities are next to Electrosteel, to take over ESL for Rs 53.20 billion in 2018, after the creditors took the ailing steelmaker to the insolvency process, and it became the second steel company to see completion of the bankruptcy process after Tata Steel took control of Bhushan Steel in April 2018.

Electrosteel Steels was a subsidiary of Electrosteel Castings. Upon taking over, Vedanta delisted the company.

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