The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 7, 2022
CRISIL Ratings has upgraded its rating on the long-term bank facilities of Jindal Stainless to ‘CRISIL AA-/Stable’ from ‘CRISIL A+/Stable’. The ratings agency has reaffirmed the company’s short-term rating at CRISIL A1+’.
The Jindal Stainless group includes JSL, Jindal Stainless (Hisar) (JSHL) and their subsidiaries.
CRISIL said that the upgrade in the long-term rating factors in the significant improvement in business risk profile of the group with sustainable improvement in the operating efficiency driven by better per tonne EBITDA levels. This has also resulted in improvement in the financial risk profile led by strong liquidity, deleveraged balance sheet and minimal long-term debt obligation over the medium term.
The ratings continue to factor in the market leadership of the Jindal Stainless group (JSL and JSHL) in the domestic stainless steel industry, both in terms of manufacturing capacity and sales volume, and sizeable export presence. With a combined steel melting capacity of nearly 1.9 million tonne per annum (mtpa), the group is also among the top ten stainless steel manufacturers globally.
Commenting on this development, JSL Managing Director Abhyuday Jindal said, “This rating upgrade re-validates our market leadership position as a trustworthy and consistent business player. The Company has delivered a strong performance despite being susceptible to input cost volatility and cyclicality in the stainless steel industry, while competing with dumped Indonesian and Chinese imports. JSL is undertaking capex for brownfield expansion that will further improve its domestic and global footprints.”
