India’s third- largest producer, may acquire a stake in Ispat Industries Ltd., Bloomberg UTV reported today, without saying where it got the information. Ispat shares rose to the highest in 18 months.
JSW Steel may pay as much as 35 rupees a share for Ispat as early as today, the report said. The deal would value the Kolkata-based company at 42.8 billion rupees ($943 million), according to Bloomberg calculations. JSW Steel spokesman Mithun Roy and Ispat spokeswoman Monaisha Pinto declined to comment.
Ispat owes about $1.5 billion, including foreign-currency loans, to lenders including IFCI Ltd., IDBI Bank Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd., according to a company presentation in May. On Nov. 26, it converted part of the debt into equity by issuing 77.7 million shares to lenders.
Ispat shares rose as much as 10 percent to 24.90 rupees, the highest since June 16 last year, and traded at 24.75 rupees as of 11:51 a.m. in Mumbai. The key Sensitive Index of the Bombay Stock Exchange fell 0.3 percent.
Ispat owns a blast furnace and a hot-rolled coil plant with a capacity of 3 million metric tons near Mumbai, according to its website. The complex also has a 1.6 million ton sponge iron plant.
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