JSW Group has announced plans to transform its infrastructure arm, JSW Infrastructure, into a complete logistics solutions provider. It also plans to increase its cargo handling capacity by 2.4  times. Arun Maheshwari, joint managing director and CEO, JSW Infrastructure, speaks to Raghavendra Kamath about the company’s strategy and outlook for the business. Edited excerpts:

Can you share your views on the Budget proposals for the infrastructure sector, including ports?

The Budget remains robust from the infrastructure spending viewpoint. Directionally, it remains on target to increase competitiveness by reducing the overall logistics costs. A stable policy is certainly an encouragement for investment in the sector.

JSW Infrastructure is transforming itself into an integrated logistics provider and getting into last-mile connectivity. What is the idea behind that?

Our journey has been largely a bulk player, port player and all-captive. Then, we shifted gears to get into third-party businesses for the last five-six years, and got into multiple locations, multiple product baskets and others. It is a natural extension for any port player to bring stickiness, and to add value to our customers. And in that process, we said let’s get into the last-mile connectivity. This is one area where people have been coming in bits and pieces. Individuals are coming, and small companies are coming. I believe a nationalistic approach is required. A pan-India approach is required for any large, organised player. 

After acquiring Navkar Corporation, are you looking at any more acquisitions?

If at all, any acquisition is available, we would do that, or we can also go for collaboration with the existing players in the field. People may not like to sell. We don’t mind because they also need some players with a similar mindset. 

Analysts said you have enough headroom to increase your capital expenditure, given the cash on the book and the strong balance sheet…

We have a headroom to go for it. Any opportunity which is value-accretive, we don’t mind looking at it, and we can further improve the guidance because any opportunity, what we acquire will also add value to our balance sheet.

What kind of growth are you expecting in revenues this year?

For us, every year has been better than the previous one. We continue to grow at 10-12%, which is decent in the sector. The government has strategically done quite a lot of changes in this sector in the last seven-eight years, which is giving results now. So, I believe 10-12% growth is what we expect from our side.

Are you looking to do any agreement with JSW Energy to procure green energy?

Since green energy sourcing rules vary from state to state, our sourcing also differs. We are currently sourcing part of our green energy from suppliers outside the group. We continue to discuss within the group as well. However, considering very low requirements per location, we evaluate with independent local players.

The company plans to curtail its direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieve net neutrality by 2050. Can you elaborate on that? 

In 2022, we brought out sustainability-linked bond issues. And then we have given a target that by 2025-26, we will reduce our carbon footprint by 15%, and by 2030, we will reduce it by 35%. We have undertaken the journey ahead of others. We have been successfully reducing our carbon footprint by using renewable energy, automation and so on. We will be completely carbon-neutral by 2050.