Essar sells Mumbai office space for $353 million to cut debt

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Essar Group said on Wednesday it has signed an agreement with property developer RMZ Corp to sell 1.25 million square feet of office space for 24 billion rupees ($353 million), as part of efforts to sell non-core assets to reduce debt. Essar, which is controlled by the billionaire Ruia brothers and has presence across oil and gas, steel, ports and power, has been under pressure by its lenders to reduce debt, which, according to some analyst estimates, is more than $14 billion. The property sold by Essar is an office space located in the prime commercial district Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai. The divestment is in line with Essar's focus to book profits in non-essential assets and deleverage its balance sheet, said Anshuman Ruia, a director on the board of some Essar Group companies. ($1 = 67.9945 rupees) (Reporting by Promit Mukherjee, editing by David Evans)