Home Economy JSW Steel plans to raise Rs.6,600 cr for Bengal project

JSW Steel plans to raise Rs.6,600 cr for Bengal project

By IANS,

Kolkata : JSW Steel, part of the Sajjan Jindal-owned JSW Group, aims to raise Rs.6,600 crore through debt for financing its Rs.11,000-crore steel project in West Bengal’s Salboni, a senior official said here Thursday.

“Sixty to 65 percent of the total project cost will be funded through debt. The rest will be taken care of through equity,” joint group chief financial officer Krishna Deshika said.

JSW Steel entered into a development agreement in 2007 with the state government, West Bengal Minerals Development and Trading Co and West Bengal Industrial Development Corp for setting up the 10-million-tonne per annum steel and power plant.

The project will be executed by JSW Bengal Steel Ltd, a subsidiary of JSW Steel.

JSW Bengal Steel and JSW Energy would form a special purpose vehicle for setting up the 1600-MW power plant with a share holding of 26 percent and 74 percent respectively, said Biswadip Gupta, chief executive of JSW Bengal Steel.

The estimated project cost for the power plant is Rs.7,680 crore, which would be funded by a combination of debt and equity in a ratio of 3:1.

The project is expected to be operational commercially by February 2015.

JSW Energy is proposing to enter the capital market with an initial public offering (IPO). It plans to raise Rs.3,000 billion crore, Gupta said, adding that the Salboni steel project would benefit from it.

“The IPO will take care of funding a substantial part of the power project, and consequently the promoters will be left with more cash for the steel project,” he said.

The power plant will be set up within the 4,500 acres identified for the integrated project.

“We have already completed land acquisition,” Gupta said.