Turnaround-wise, Jai Balaji Industries plans ?1,000 crore in capital expenditures.
Bussiness line
India
29-12-2023
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The company plans to pay off its current ?560 crore debt in order to become net debt-free after completing the capacity expansion project in 18 months. Jai Balaji Industries has come a long way, from being listed on the second RBI list of notorious defaulters in 2017–18 to preparing a ?1,000 crore capital expenditure. It is now an extremely rare example of a steel industry turnaround story that has succeeded.
After being hit by the Supreme Court's abrupt sale of a coal block and attempting a 5 million tonne annual greenfield expansion, the producer of large ductile iron (DI) pipes faced an unprecedented challenge in 2011–12 and ultimately failed to make payments on a ?3,400 crore loan to a group of 22 banks. The business continued to concentrate on increasing productivity, reducing expenses, and raising the calibre of its output even as it battled the financial crisis. It produces TMT bars, specialty ferroalloys, and DI pipes for water supply. 2020 proved to be the company's turning point.
In the first half of this fiscal year, the company's net profit more than doubled to ?372 crore from ?43 crore during the same period previous year, thanks to improved margins. Revenue increased by 7% to ?3,065 crore (?2,876 crore).
According to Aditya Jajodia, Chairman and Managing Director of Jai Balaji Industries, the company's turnaround can be attributed to its shareholders, employees, and financial lenders who all had total faith in the management team and knew the business would succeed.