NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Essar Steel, facing growing pressure from its lenders to cut its debt burden, has appointed ICICI Securities and SBI Capital Markets as advisers to help it sell a stake in the business, the company said.
Essar Steel is suffering along with much of the industry from the impact of Chinese over-supply and falling prices, and the group had already announced plans to raise funds by selling some of its non-core assets.
"Major steel companies across the world are taking suitable steps to cut costs and raise money. India is no different," Essar said in a statement posted on its website.
"It is in this context that Essar Steel has taken a proactive decision to induct strategic/financial investors into the company."
China, which makes nearly half the world's 1.6 billion tonnes of steel, is expected to export a record 100 million tonnes this year to help address its spare steel-making capacity.
India imposed a 20 percent import tax on some steel products in September to mitigate the damage to domestic companies.
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The company is part of the Essar Group, one of India's highly indebted conglomerates. The group has separately signed a non-binding agreement to sell up to 49 percent of their subsidiary Essar Oil to Russia's top oil producer Rosneft.[nL8N0ZO3JK]
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Clara Ferreira Marques; editing by Robert Birsel)