What are Jai Balaji Industries' plans for a turnaround?1,000 crores in investments in capital.

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.
Despite being brought before IBC, the business settled its debts with lenders outside of court. Some banks paid the debts straight to the company, while others assigned the loans to asset reconstruction firms like Edelweiss and Omkara.
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.

This year, the promoter family invested ?250 crore in the business to bolster its net worth and inspire confidence in lenders. It recently received ?40 crore for working capital and ?559 crore from Tata Capita to pay off outstanding debt.

At its Durgapur plant in West Bengal, Jai Balaji Industries has designed a capital expenditure plan worth approximately ?1,000 crore to increase the capacity of DI pipes and special-grade ferroalloys. Plans to build a 50–70 MW solar power plant through a separate capital expenditure are also becoming more solid.

After paying off its current ?560 crore debt, the company hopes to become net debt-free in 18 months from the completion of the capacity expansion project.

The Jal Jeevan Mission of the Central government, which provides funding for water supply projects all over the nation, is helping the new strategy, which focuses on ductile iron pipes used for water supply. The industry is anticipated to expand in the near future at a CAGR of 13–15%.