Talks are underway to restructure Rs 7,500 crore in debt owed by JSW Steel

Eight JSW Steel lenders are negotiating with several banks to restructure the company’s over Rs 7,500 crore debt, which was borrowed for capital expenditures and debt repayment.

 

For the refinancing endeavor, the lenders—which include Standard Chartered, HSBC, BNP Paribas, and First Abu Dhabi Bank—are also doing roadshows in Singapore, Taipei, and Dubai. The other lenders include DBS, SMBC, Mashreq Bank, CTBC Bank, and people close to the matter informed FE.

With a five-year term and a Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) + 180 BPS interest rate, JSW Steel has obtained the financing from the banks.

Steel magnate Sajjan Jindal had asked as many as six lenders for $750 million earlier in February as JSW Steel was starting to expand its capacity via both brownfield and greenfield projects.

As of the time of going to print, there had been no response to an email addressed to JSW Steel representatives.

The company’s net debt at December 31, 2023, was Rs 79,221 crore, mostly as a result of increased working capital investments.

JSW Steel and the Italian government signed a deal in March of this year to reopen a manufacturing plant in Piombino. The Indian business plans to spend an additional 143 million euros to modernize the location.

Before this, in February, the company had started negotiations to pay between $750 million and $1 billion to purchase a 20% share in Australia’s Whitehaven Coal’s coal mine.

In addition to the Rs 30,000 crore the firm has already spent in the state, the steel-to-cement conglomerate pledged in February to spend an additional Rs 1.65 trillion in Odisha to establish a 13.2 MTPA steel production facility, a 900 MW power plant, a 10 MTPA cement plant, and a port.