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“We are looking to make a joint bid, as both firms belong to the same $18 billion Jindal Group. We are also partnering in the Afghanistan iron ore project” a JSP source told Steel First.
“There are close to dozen companies looking to acquire Stemcor’s assets, but only two to three companies will be able to pay such a huge amount of $800 million and, not only that, [the] companies will have to add a premium that will take the figure to more than $1 billion,” the source added.
Brothers Naveen and Sajjan Jindal, respective heads of JSP and JSW, emerged as rival bidders for Stemcor’s two iron ore assets in India last month.
The Stemcor assets are Odisha-based Aryan Mining & Trading Corp (AMTC) and Brahmani River Pellets.
Tata Steel, Adani Group, Essar Steel are also understood to be bidding for the assets.
“We sent the formal request on our interest to Stemcor’s London office on July 7, 2013, but, we have not received any response yet,” the JSW Steel source added.
Stemcor’s Mumbai office did not respond to Steel First requests for comment.
AMTC is an operating mine, with a JORC resource in excess of 100 million tonnes at 57.2% Fe and a licence to mine 3 million tpy. It also has an estimated 2 million tonnes of manganese ore reserves, according to the company.
Brahmani River Pellets comprises a 4 million tpy beneficiation plant in Barbil, Odisha, and a pellet plant complex in Jajpur, Odisha, connected by a 220km underground slurry pipeline.
Stemcor also holds 10% equity stake in the Odisha-based, 4 million-tpy iron ore mining company, Mideast Integrated Steel.
The family-run Jindal Group is one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates.