Indian court approves JSW acquisition of Bhushan Steel

Private-sector Indian firm JSW Steel's 197bn rupees ($2.7bn) acquisition of local producer Bhushan Power & Steel (BPSL) has been approved by an Indian bankruptcy court, likely concluding an auction process that began in mid-2017.

JSW Steel made a higher bid for Bhushan Power than its rivals Tata Steel and UK-based Liberty House. Another Bhushan group company, Bhushan Steel, was earlier acquired by Tata Steel.

The acquisition will add Bhushan's 3.5mn t/yr crude steel capacity to JSW Steel's current steelmaking capacity of 18mn t/yr, which is primarily based in western and southern India. Bhushan's integrated steel plant is located in the eastern state of Odisha, giving JSW an entry into India's eastern market.

BPSL also has rerolling facilities at Chandigarh in northern India and Kolkata in the east. These plants make value-added products such as hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil, galvanised sheet, precision tube and wire rod.

JSW Steel, in partnership with the Apollo Global Management-backed Aion Capital Partners, earlier acquired the 1.5mn t/yr integrated steelmaking plant of Monnet Ispat in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh through the bankruptcy auction process.

Six integrated Indian steel producers were put up for auction under a new bankruptcy resolution law in 2017. All of these companies have now been sold, although the acquisition of Essar Steel by ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel is awaiting final approval from the Supreme Court, where several creditors have filed objections to the distribution of the acquisition funds. The acquisition itself has not been challenged.