JSPL plans to raise Rs 760 cr via overseas borrowing

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd plans to raise about $150 million (about Rs 764 crore) through overseas borrowing in the next two weeks.

"The company is looking at overseas borrowing. Currently, we are working for (raising) about $150 million," Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) Director and Group CFO Sushil Maroo said here today.

"We have almost closed it and are in the final stages of document preparation. We will be closing it in the next fortnight," he told reporters on the sidelines of an Assocham conference.

Regarding the capital expenditure plans for the next fiscal, Maroo said JSPL expects to spend about Rs 6,000-8,000 crore. "This (would be) for steel and power," he added.

He said the board would take a final decision on the plans for listing Jindal Power.

"The board will take a final view. We are thinking about it. I hope that DRHP (Draft Red Herring Prospectus) will be filed in 2012-13," he noted.

On the company's proposed Bolivia steel project, Maroo said discussions are going on with the Bolivian government for sometime.

"We are awaiting an answer from the Bolivian government. We have written a letter to them very recently. I hope the response would come fast because they are also interested in pushing the project forward.

"It should happen shortly, within two to three months time," he said.

The company had inked an agreement with the Bolivian government to set up an integrated 1.7 million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant, a 6-mtpa sponge iron and a 10-mtpa iron ore pellet plant in the country at an investment of $2.1 billion.

"They (Bolivian government) have to come back and tell us, how much gas they can give us. All further planning would be done after getting the gas availability (details) from them," Maroo noted.

JSPL, that has an annual turnover of more than $2.9 billion, is part of the diversified OP Jindal Group.