JSW Infrastructure aims to list shares in 2018/19

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's JSW Infrastructure Ltd, owned by billionaire Sajjan Jindal, plans to list its shares on local bourses in 2018/19 as it draws an expansion plan to increase operating profit and cargo-handling capacity, a company official said.

"Right now the company is in expansion mode. We are looking for 15-20 billion rupees operating profit before the listing of our shares," Devki Nandan, its vice president for business development, told Reuters.

Nandan expects a 30 percent growth in his firm's operating profit in the current fiscal year over 5 billion rupees recorded in 2015/16, and targets cargo-handling capacity of 300 million tonnes by 2025.

JSW Infrastructure, a part of metals-to-cement conglomerate JSW Group, operates three ports and a jetty on India's west coast that can annually handle 36 million tonnes of cargoes.

It is constructing an 18 million tonnes a year iron ore terminal at Paradip port in the eastern Odisha state.

The terminal will be built by 2018, while another facility to annually handle 30 million tonnes coal is expected to be completed by 2020, he added.

The company plans to expand the cargo-handling capacity to 200 million tonnes in the first phase by 2020, he said.

JSW Infrastructure is in talks with global container companies and shipping lines for a strategic partnership to lock in cargoes for its expanded port capacity, he said.

Before its listing, JSW Infrastructure aims to diversify its cargo-handling capabilities to include containers, petroleum products, chemicals, liquefied natural gas and fertilisers, among others, he said.

JSW Infrastructure currently deals with coking coal, iron ore and agri-commodity cargoes at its ports.

It is building chemical tankage and edible oil storage at its Jaigarh port in western Maharashtra state with about 100,000 tonnes and about 20,000 tonnes capacity. These projects will be completed in 2018, he added.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)