Essar will bring in strong shareholder value to Vedanta portfolio: Agarwal

With a strong balance sheet and a healthy debt:equity ratio of 1:1, Executive Chairman and Vedanta Group founder Anil Agarwal is bidding aggressively to grab a sizeable share in the domestic steel industry. In an interview on the phone with Aditi Divekar, Agarwal talks about his plan to turn around Essar Steel’s asset and his soft corner for Jharkhand's Electrosteel Steels. Edited excerpts:

Essar Steel, being a gas-based plant, has been an issue for its promoters all along. What interests Vedanta to bid for this asset?

The fact that the asset is gas-based is not a challenge for Vedanta because we produce