A consortium of eight lenders to JSW Steel are in talks with a clutch of banks to refinance nearly Rs 7,500-crore debt raised by the firm to repay debt and for capital expenditure.
The lenders, including Standard Chartered, HSBC, BNP Paribas and First Abu Dhabi Bank, are also holding roadshows in Singapore, Taipei and Dubai for the refinancing initiative. CTBC Bank, Mashreq Bank, SMBC and DBS are the other lenders, sources close to the development told FE.
JSW Steel had raised the debt from the banks with a five-year tenure and Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus 180 BPS interest rate.
Earlier in February, steel tycoon Sajjan Jindal had sought $750 million from as many as six lenders as JSW Steel was embarking on a capacity expansion through both brownfield and greenfield initiatives.
An email sent to JSW Steel officials elicited no response at the time of going to press.
As of December 31, 2023, the firm had a net debt of Rs 79,221 crore, mainly due to additional working capital investments.
In March this year, JSW Steel had entered into an agreement with the Italian government to restart a manufacturing facility at Piombino, with the Indian company intending to invest another 143 million euros to modernise the site.
Prior to this, in February, the firm had initiated talks to acquire a 20% stake in a coal mine owned by Australia’s Whitehaven Coal in a deal valued between $750 million and $1 billion.
In February, the steel-to-cement conglomerate also committed to invest Rs 1.65 trillion in Odisha — to set up a 13.2 MTPA steel manufacturing facility, a 900 MW power plant, 10 MTPA cement plant and port — in addition to the Rs 30,000 crore the group has already invested in the state.