Steel major JSPL Mauritius' arm makes $ 357-mn prepayment to lenders

Homegrown steel major JSPL on Sunday said its subsidiary in Mauritius has made a prepayment of USD 357 million to lenders.

The prepayment will help clear the entire debt on Jindal Steel & Power (Mauritius) (JSPML), Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) said in a statement.

"Jindal Steel & Power (Mauritius) has prepaid a USD 357 million loan to its lenders. (Entire) overseas debt will get entirely paid in the coming quarters," it said.

Over the past three years, JSPL said, it has been able to reduce its overseas debt from USD 1.8 billion to USD 130 million.

The bulk of its overseas debt now sits in its Australian subsidiary at USD 113 million, it added.

In September 2021, JSPL had announced making a pre-payment of USD 106 million to the lenders of its arm Jindal Steel & Power (Australia) Ltd.

As per the company statement, JSPL Group's net debt has come down from a peak of Rs 46,500 crore to Rs 10,981 crore in December 2021.

"We are pre-paying our lenders to further strengthen our balance sheet and we want to become a net debt-free company by FY23 through accelerated deleveraging. The company is aligned with the India growth story. We will expand our steelmaking capacity to over 15 MTPA by 2025," V R Sharma, Managing Director, JSPL said in the statement.

According to additional information shared by JSPL, the Mauritius-based subsidiary is the holding company for its overseas mines and minerals assets.

"The loan was taken for acquiring mines and mineral assets to primarily provide raw material security to JSPL India steel operations," it said.