India’s Essar Oil, a division of London-listed Essar Energy, is set to announce an unusual debt financing deal with state-run China Development Bank, in a further sign of deepening financial ties between Asia’s two largest emerging economies.
The heavily indebted group will today sign a three-way memorandum of understanding on a “funding for fuel” agreement between itself, CDB, and oil producer PetroChina.
It is the first arrangement involving a big Indian company but comes after other Chinese overseas loan-for-oil deals, including an agreement with the government of Venezuela, to which China loaned $20bn in 2010 in exchange for guaranteed oil shipments.