"The size of any of the above issue/offering of Securities is proposed to be up to an aggregate amount not exceeding $1 billion or equivalent amount in Indian or any other currency (inclusive of such premium as may be determined) to be issue in one or more tranches," Essar said in a notice to the shareholders.
Execution of various projects of the subsidiary companies require considerable amount of equity, it added.
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The agenda is part of the company's annual general meeting scheduled to be held on September 26 at Jamnagar, Gujarat.
Essar has cargo handling capacity of 104 million tonne and is in the process of expanding it to 181 million tonne by 2016.
The company said the mode of fund raising will be decided later and several options, including public issue and Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), are being considered.
It has also sought separate approval from shareholders to provide guarantee and loans worth Rs 750 crore to some of its subsidiaries, over and above the loans, guarantees and investments made so far in them.
Essar Ports, which has a total debt of about Rs 5,800 crore, had already announced intention to refinance part of its debt through dollar loans and is in the process of securing approval from the Reserve Bank of India.
Company's CEO Rajiv Agrawal had said in July that Essar is in touch with RBI for the approval and in next 6 months, it may go for dollar loans. The company is also exploring the option of taking loan from IIFCL through its take out financing scheme.
The move was necessary as most of the company's debt is in rupees and interest costs are eating into its revenues. Last fiscal, it had incurred Rs 510 crore as finance costs on a total income of Rs 1,434 crore.
Essar had also announced that it is moving towards a dollar-based tariff structure to cut interest costs and mitigate the impact of falling rupee.
Accordingly, the company will report earnings in dollar and customers will be charged either in dollar or its equivalent value in rupee. It has already implemented the plan at its flagship Hajira Port.