JSPL Plans More Non-Core Asset Sales To Ease Debt Burden
JSPL contained its Rs 45,000 crore debt in Q2 despite production increase.
Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. may look to sell more non-core assets to pare debt, Naushad Ansari, chief executive officer of the company told BloombergQuint in an interview. The company has already sold its oxygen plants in Angul and Raigarh.
The steel and power producer has managed to contain its debt at around Rs 45,000 crore, Ansari said.
The Naveen Jindal-led company aims to commission a basic oxygen furnace, used for converting iron into steel, at its key Angul plant in Odisha by the first week of December. This will help ramp-up domestic crude steel capacity as India’s appetite for the alloy continues to grow. JSPL expects a capacity utilisation of nearly 5 million tonnes per annum from this plant post the successful commissioning of this furnace. This will help lift its revenue from the fourth quarter, Ansari added.
While commissioning of the Angul furnace is underway, the Raigarh facility is running at 3.5 million tonnes capacity. Overall domestic capacity utilisation is likely to be around 8-8.5 million tonnes per annum, the JSPL CEO said.
Power generation at JSPL fell 24 percent sequentially to 2.4 kilowatt per hour in the July-September quarter, mainly due to coal shortage and the company is looking at possible alternatives.
We expect coal shortage to sustain for another quarter at least, however, we are trying to find solutions by importing coal at remunerative prices and looking for linkages that would ensure undisrupted supply.Naushad Ansari, Chief Executive Officer, JSPL
JSPL’s sales and production guidance for the year stands at 5 million tonnes per annum and the company has no significant capital expenditure plans in the near-term, said Ansari.
Key Highlights Of Q2 Results:
- Revenues up 31.2 percent to Rs 6,123 crore
- Net loss narrowed to Rs 448 crore from Rs 746 crore last year
- Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up 62 percent to Rs 1,374 crore
- Ebitda margin expanded to 22.4 percent from 18.2 percent last year
Watch the full interview here.