JSW to invest Rs 40,000 cr in 3 years

Chennai: The ‘JSW part’ of the Jindal group, which is managed by Mr Sajjan Jindal, plans to invest Rs 40,000 crore on various steel and power projects, over the next three years. JSW Energy Ltd, a part of this faction of Jindals, will come out with an initial public offering next year, to raise around Rs 5,000 crore, Mr Sajjan Jindal said today.

Addressing a press conference here to disclose the group’s plans for Tamil Nadu, Mr Jindal said that JSW “is willing to invest Rs 7,500 crore” in the State, mainly on two projects — doubling the capacity of Southern Iron & Steel Company Ltd (SISCOL) to 2 million tonnes (Rs 3,000 crore), iron ore mining to feed SISCOL (Rs 400 crore) and a 1,000-MW power plant (Rs 4,000 crore).

Of the Rs 40,000 crore of investments, half would be in the steel sector (including SISCOL expansion). The group has plans to put up integrated steel plants in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh — 6 mt in each State. Various power projects will consume investments of Rs 12,000 crore. The other Rs 8,000 crore would be spent on the proposed foray into cement making, aluminium and building ports.

JSW is putting up two cement plants — 2 million tonnes in Andhra Pradesh and 3 million tonnes in Karnataka — investing Rs 2,000 crore for the purpose. It will invest another Rs 4,000 crore on a 1.6-million tonne alumina plant in Andhra Pradesh. Over time, the group would invest a further sum of Rs 6,000 crore to produce 250,000 tonnes a year of aluminium, Mr Jindal said.

Mr Jindal said the equity portion of the investments would be Rs 15,000 crore, including the Rs 5,000 crore IPO by JSW Energy. Debt of Rs 25,000 crore has been tied up.