NEW DELHI: The FY2019 was a good year for Naveen Jindal led Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL), while the year 2018 witnessed a noticeable slowdown in global growth and tough financial conditions and policy uncertainty in many economies including India.
JSPL, one of the lowest cost producers of steel and power in India, aims to become a debt free company. JSPL exports its products to more than 22 countries.
“With a focus on bringing down our debts to comfortable levels, JSPL stands to become an enduring, high quality industrial institution within the marketplace.”, in his message to stakeholders said Chairman of JSPL – Naveen Jindal.
“When it comes to financial prudence, our philosophy can be summarised through the words of Shakespeare, “Neither a lender, nor a borrower be”, and in this vein, one of the key long term strategies for JSPL is to become a debt free company. Over the past few years, we have pared down our consolidated debt from peak levels of Rs. 47,000 crore to Rs. 39,000 crore in FY2019.”, said Jindal.
“JSPL has already deleveraged Rs 4,000 crore from operational initiatives through operational cash flows in FY2019 and further targets to pare debt worth Rs 8,000 crore in FY2020.”, it added.
“As the capacity utilisation of our current assets improves and we continue to optimise our operational efficiencies, we are confident in our ability to systematically continue on this path of debt reduction. We want to become a financially strong company that any intrinsic investor would be happy to own.”, he said.
The growth of JSPL during the last fiscal was largely driven by production ramp up at our 6 MTPA integrated steel plant at Angul in Odisha.
As per report, JSPL’s standalone Sales turnover in FY2019 rose by 58%. JSPL reported EBITDA at Rs. 6,017 crore up 51% YoY. The Company achieved a Consolidated Steel Sales of 6.93 MT in FY2019, up 27% YoY and steel production of 6.96 MT as opposed to 5.70 MT in FY2018.
JSPL recorded its highest ever-annual revenue (Consolidated) of Rs. 39,388 crore, 41% higher than the previous year. JSPL’s Consolidated EBITDA rose by 30% compared to previous year FY2018 and stood at Rs. 8,406 crore vs. Rs. 6,469 crore for FY2018.
On Monday it emerged as the highest bidder for Gare Palma IV/1 coal block in Chhattisgarh with a bid price of Rs 230 per tonne, a premium of 53% over reserve price, said people aware of the matter.
India is set to become the second largest steel producer in the world. While global steel production and steel capacity has improved, global steel demand is likely to be muted.
