High steel prices boost growth aspirations of Shri Bajrang

Mumbai/Raipur: The current commodity cycle is helping steel manufacturers the most by boosting their internal accruals, which come handy for debt reduction for established players like Tata Steel as well as relatively new players to fulfil their aspirations of brown field and green field expansions to augment capacity.

Raipur, Chhattisgarh-based Shri Bajrang Power and Ispat, which operates 1.76 million tonne per annum steel plants and 83 MW captive power plants is executing a brownfield expansion at a cost of Rs 217 crore. A greenfield expansion project of hot rolled (HR) coil still on the drawing boards.

"The proposed greenfield expansion of HR coil will enable backward integration, taking care of the raw material requirement of ERW pipe plant already set up by the company at 2.5 lakh mtpa, besides improving the economies of scale," Anand Goel, executive director, Shri Bajrang Power and Ispat, told visiting journalists.

The company also proposes to set up a Rs 175-crore, 50 MW solar power plant.

Most of the investments are being made from internal accruals, as the company had net cash accruals of Rs 444 crore in FY21.

The company clocked operating income of Rs 1,176 crore in the first quarter of FY22 and Rs 2,962.3 crore in FY21.

As of June 30, 2021, Shri Bajrang Power and Ispat's total debt stood at Rs 661.77 crore compared with Rs 844.47 crore as on March 31, 2021.

The company has filed a draft red herring prospectus with the Sebi to raise capital through an IPO to pay off debts.