Jindal Steel bids for acquiring Stemcor's Indian assets

Jindal Steel and Power has bid for acquiring Indian assets of British trading major Stemcor, a top company official said today.
"We have submitted our bid to Stemcor and they are evaluating. They have told us that they will come back to us," JSPL Managing Director and CEO Ravi Uppal told reporters here.
He declined to comment further, saying that bids have not yet been opened.
Deadline for submitting bids for acquiring Stemcor's Indian assets had ended on January 20. It could not be ascertained how many companies, other than JSPL, have bid for Stemcor's assets.
In May last year, the unlisted British trading major had failed to repay USD 850 million loans due to considerable fall in sales. This led to Stemcor initiating the process to sell its Indian assets, which include stakes in two producing iron ore mines and a 4 million tonne pellet plant.

The company has time till February-end to complete its restructuring process. Goldman Sachs is advising the company on the asset sale.

In India, the British firm has three key ventures -- Aryan Mining and Trading Corporation (AMTC), Brahmani River Pellets Ltd (BRPL) and Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd (MISL). All the three ventures are located in Odisha only and Stemcor has invested about Rs 2,000 crore on them.
Of the 3 ventures, AMTC is the main operating company for Stemcor in India. It holds majority ownership of producing iron ore and manganese mines, having 100 million tonnes of reserves with the licence to mine 3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

BRPL, another subsidiary of Stemcor, has a 4 MTPA iron ore beneficiation plant and a 4 MTPA pellet plant, while the British trading major also holds 10 per cent stake and trading rights in Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd (MISL), which also has a producing iron ore mine.
When asked about Justice M B Shah Commission's report on illegal mining, Uppal said that he has not read it as it has not yet been made public.
"I have not read it. The Shah Commission report has not been made public. All kinds of speculations are on. I hope the government will never do any such thing which harms the industry," he said.