The divestment is in line with JSPL’s strategic objective to continuously reduce its debt and carbon emissions and focus on steel business.
“After various rounds of discussions and negotiations, JSPL and its transaction advisors have successfully negotiated a revised and improved binding offer from Worldone accommodating all investor feedback received by the company. Worldone will (now) buy out all the equity shares and redeemable preference shares of JPL held by JSPL for a total consideration of approximately Rs 7,401 crore,” JSPL said in a statement.
The company informed that out of Rs 7,401 crore, Rs 3,015 crore will be paid cash, while the balance Rs 4,386 crore will be settled by “way of assumption and takeover of liabilities and obligations of JSPL in relation to inter-corporate deposits and the capital advances extended by JPL to JSPL”.
JSPL further said it has also taken a decision to undertake a competitive bidding process to realise the highest possible value for JPL stake sale to protect the interests of its investors, especially the minority shareholders.
In the bidding process, if JSPL receives a higher offer compared to that of Worldone’s offer of Rs 7,401 crore, the company will accept it. The transparent bidding process will be advertised in the public domain and will present an equal opportunity for interested bidders from around the world to come forward and improve the offer, JSPL said.
In the statement, a JSPL spokesperson said, “JSPL has been able to successfully negotiate an improved revised offer accommodating all of the investor feedback received over the last several weeks. JSPL has also announced to undertake an additional transparent competitive bidding process open to the world to see if the company can secure an even higher value than the present revised offer given by Worldone.”
Part of O P Jindal Group, JSPL is an industrial powerhouse with a dominant presence in steel, power, mining and infrastructure sectors. According to the statement, Worldone Private Limited is a private company owned by the Promoter Group of JSPL, and managing and holding investments across various listed and unlisted companies.
