Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) rose 1.49% to Rs 448.90 after the company accepted a binding offer from Worldone, to divest its 96.42% stake in Jindal Power (JPL), a material subsidiary of the company.
The divestment is in line with JSPL's strategic objective to continuously reduce its debt, focus on its India Steel business and significantly reduce its carbon footprint by almost half as part of its ESG objectives. The equity value is an all-cash offer of Rs 3,015 crore for 96.42% stake in JPL, including 3,400 MW (mega-watt) coal fired power plants in Chhattisgarh and other non-core assets owned by JPL.
V.R. Sharma, the managing director of JSPL, said: "This divestment is in line with our ESG objectives to be amongst the top 10 lowest Co2 emitting steel companies of the world. It is yet another step towards our vision to reduce debt substantially and create a robust balance sheet for our investors and stakeholders. Looking to the future, JSPL will be a key growth driver in the Indian steel industry and will now focus on undertaking expansion of its Angul steel plant from 6 MTPA to 12 MTPA. Infrastructure spending in India is bound to grow exponentially and JSPL is fully aligned with GoI's vision of achieving 300 MTPA steel production by 2030. We firmly believe in the India growth story and its potential to be an engine of global growth."