JSW Steel, India's largest steelmaking firm by capacity, will raise at least Rs 5,600 crore by way of debt in fiscal 2015, partly to refinance existing rupee loans with foreign currency borrowings and to fund capacity expansion with the remaining. 

JSW Steel is planning capital expenditure of Rs 3,300 crore this fiscal to augment steelmaking capacity at its Dolvi plant in Maharashtra by 1.7 mt. The overall steelmaking capacity of JSW Steel will stand at 16 mt after the expansion programme is completed which, according to joint managing director and group chief financial officer Seshagiri Rao, should happen by September 2015.

Additionally, the company will also spend R720 crore to modernise a unit at its Vijaynagar manufacturing facility. The company will raise Rs 2,200 crore of the funds required for capacity expansion at Dolvi by way of debt, Rao said. It will also look to refinance 10% of its overall net debt that is rupee-denominated (around Rs 3,400 crore) with foreign currency debt during the fiscal. JSW Steel's overall net debt stood at Rs 34,014 crore as on March 31.

The Sajjan Jindal-led company that announced its earnings for the January-March quarter on Tuesday, posted a 63% y-o-y rise in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31 to Rs 482.83 crore on the back of higher volumes and better margins.

JSW Steel's turnover in the same period rose 45% to R14342.41 crore. Consolidated operating profit stood at Rs 2496 crore, up 47% over the earlier year, and operating profit margin improved year-on-year by 1.7 percentage points to 20% for the January-March quarter.

JSW's earnings for the March quarter missed Street estimates on the net profit front, but surpassed expectations vis-à-vis turnover. A Bloomberg poll of JSW Steel's earnings estimates put out by analysts pegged net profit at Rs 589.3 crore, and revenue at Rs 13,321.24 crore.

During the last quarter of fiscal 2014, JSW Steel sold 3.15 mt of steel, a 49% growth year-on-year. "A lot of cost reduction initiatives taken by us in the last fiscal helped in improving margins and our performance in terms of steel sales was much higher than what we had guided," Rao said.

• [Editor:Phillip.Feng]