JSPL sells oxygen plant assets to SREI arm for ₹1,121 crore

NEW DELHI: Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) has sold its oxygen plant assets of Raigarh and Angul units to SREI Equipment Finance for Rs 1,121 crore.

"JSPL has consummated sale of oxygen plant assets at Rs 1,121 crore with SREI Equipment Finance Ltd," the company said in a BSE filing on Monday.

Under the transaction, JSPL has divested its oxygen plant assets at its integrated steel plants in Raigarh in Chhattisgarh and Angul in Odisha and received a total consideration of Rs 1,121 crore, it said. It further said the company has entered into a leaseback agreement with SREI Equipment Finance for continued operations of manufacturing steel at respective plants.

Under the agreement, "the owner (of oxygen plant assets) will be SREI Equipment Finance Ltd, but we will be taking care of the operations and we will pay them the lease", a company official said.

However, he did not disclose the amount at which the oxygen plant assets have been leased out.

"The divestment of oxygen plant assets is a significant development to make JSPL an asset-light company so as to further enhance the inherent cost efficiencies," said Naushad N Ansari, CEO - Steel Business, JSPL.

JSPL will continue to manage these oxygen plant capacities for its 9.6-mtpa domestic steel plants under the leaseback agreement it has entered with SREI Equipment Finance, he added.

Naveen Jindal-owned JSPL is into steel, power generation and infrastructure segments and caters to a large part of India's domestic energy and infrastructure requirements. NEW DELHI: Following a strong showing in the first half of this year, global merger and acquisition activity suffered in the third quarter with deals worth just $674 billion, says a report.

According to global deal tracking firm Mergermarket, the third quarter of 2017 has seen just $674 billion, the lowest quarterly value since the first quarter of 2016 when 4,349 deals worth $623.4 billion took place.

Following the poor showing in the third quarter, the deal tally for the first nine months of this year stood at $2.2 trillion, down 1.7 per cent over the corresponding period last year when transactions worth $2.25 trillion were announced.

"As firms attempt to adapt to ever-changing political and technological circumstances, global M&A has stuttered over the summer following a strong showing in the first half of the year," Mergermarket said the report.

The largest deal of the quarter (July-september) saw the tie-up of aerospace firms United Technologies and Rockwell Collins for $29.9 billion.

This became the second largest deal in the US in 2017, only behind the mammoth $60.6 billion Bat/reynolds announcement in January, and forms the largest US domestic deal so far this year, the report said.

The report further noted that the US M&A accounted for 40.9 per cent of global M&A in the July-september quarter by value.

Meanwhile, Europe has faltered in the July-september period with its lowest quarterly value since the Octoberdecember quarter of 2012 at $158 billion.

"This left Europe with a 29.8 per cent share of the global M&A value the lowest quarterly share of 2017 so far...," the report added.