JSW Steel eyes turnaround of Monnet Ispat in a year

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) last week approved a Rs 2,875-crore bid by a consortium of Aion Investments and JSW Steel to acquire the bankrupt Monnet Ispat & Energy, which owes over Rs 11,000 crore to a clutch of lenders. The Aion-JSW consortium was the sole bidder for the 1.5 million tonne asset in Chhattisgarh.

"We will eventually merge Monnet Ispat into JSW Steel and it will be a JSW brand. Our past experience is normally we turn-around in one year, so we hope that will happen," JSW Steel chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal told reporters on the side-lines of company's annual general meeting (AGM) here.

Replying to query on acquisition of Essar Steel, Jindal said, "The matter is in the court and the NCLAT judgement is expected in the next 2-3 weeks. We will see after that what happens."

The company's inorganic plans for the domestic market include buying stressed assets through NCLT, and towards that end it has tied up with Numetal, which is co-promoted by the Essar Group to buy Essar steel.

Commenting on JSW Steel's interest in acquiring the special steel business of Usha Martin, Jindal said, the domestic steel industry is in a consolidation phase. Usha Martin is also one of those steps probably will go through consolidation. "But I can't say what we are going to do," he added.

In the domestic market, JSW Steel also plans to make capital expenditure of Rs 45,000 crore by FY21 to expand capacities at Vijayanagar and Dolvi units and modernise and expand capacities of downstream businesses, he said.

Jindal pointed out that the company is also in the process of working to increase its presence in iron ore and coking coal mining.

Global economies are increasingly stepping up protectionist trade measures to safeguard the interest of their domestic industries. While this trend could continue in the future, it will not hinder JSW Steel's growth in the international markets, Jindal said.

He also pointed out that steel prices will remain stable because it is primarily driven by raw materials like coal and iron ore prices, which are in the stable territory.