The Essar Group, one of the country's conglomerates with interests that range from shipping to mobile telephony, is considering raising up to $3 billion (Rs13,827 crore) by listing its oil and power assets on the London Stock Exchange, according to several reliable reports.

The company however has refused to confirm the reports, saying on Sunday that while the group is always looking at a range of options to fund its operations, it has ''not yet made any specific decision with regards to its future financing".

The deal, which would value Essar's energy businesses at $12 billion, would be the country's biggest overseas listing. It is also one of the strongest options to finance the group's $8-9 billion expansion plan that would strengthen the group's position in the top ranks of India's oil refining and electric power generation sectors.

The Financial Express points out that the Essar listing would also be a boost to the LSE, which recently lost out on the listing of Rusal, the aluminium group controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. It opted to float on the Hong Kong exchange instead.

Under LSE rules, Essar would be required to list 20-25 per cent of the energy company, raising $2.4-$3 billion, which would make the listing larger than previous Indian overseas initial public offerings in London and New York.

At the upper limit, the deal would also be on a par with India's largest domestic IPO, the $3 billion listing of Reliance Power in early 2008.

Essar is expected to make a decision on its fundraising options in the next six weeks.

Essar, with $15 billion of revenues, is controlled by brothers Shashi and Ravi Ruia, who are joint fifth on Forbes' Indian rich list. Essar has interests in telecommunications - including a joint venture with Vodafone of the UK - as well as steel, power, oil refining and outsourcing, in countries from the US to Kenya and parts of Asia.

The company, India's second-largest private sector power operator, has fully-funded plans to increase its power generation business from 1,200 mw of capacity to 6,000 mw by 2012. It would use the IPO funds for the next phase of this expansion, taking its power generation capacity to 11,000 mw.

Buys Trinity Coal of US for $600 millon
Over the weekend, the group said it signed a deal to buy US coal producer Trinity Coal Partners LLC from US private-equity firm Denham Capital for $600 million (Rs2,765 crore). The deal is part of the company's strategy to source raw materials for its global steel and power operations.

Trinity Coal will help fuel the company's North American steel operations, including its Essar Steel Algoma facility in Ontario, Canada.

In the oil business, the LSE listing would help Essar finance the second phase of its refinery expansion to increase capacity from 300,000 barrels of oil per day to 750,000 bpd.

Essar Oil is also in talks with Royal Dutch Shell to buy three European refineries. The company, which runs a 280,000 barrels-per-day refinery in western India and owns a 50 per cent stake in a Kenyan refinery, is pursuing the deal as part of plans to have a refining capacity of 1 million barrels a day.

In November, Essar Group agreed to buy a majority stake in Dhabi Group's telecommunications businesses in Uganda and Congo.

Essar is Vodafone's partner in India's No. 3 mobile firm, Vodafone Essar. It holds a 33 per cent stake in Vodafone Essar and holds less than 10 per cent in another Indian telecoms firm, Loop Mobile.