The Hindu Business Line : Jindal Stainless to complete demerger of lifestyle, architecture units by March

JINDAL Stainless Ltd (JSL), the largest stainless steel manufacturer in the country, has set March 2006 as the deadline for completing the hiving off process of its lifestyle and architecture divisions into two companies.

The company has mandated the chartered accountant firm S. S. Kothari Mehta & Associated for doing the valuation of these two divisions. Last week, the company had announced plans for the demerger.

"We expect that the valuation report would be ready by next week. Once the valuation is over, the next step would be to file the necessary papers with the Court, which could be expected by the middle of December," senior company officials said.

"According to the company's internal estimates, the Court process may take several weeks and so we have set the target date for completion of the entire process by March next year," the officials said.

These two divisions will be set up as wholly owned subsidiaries of JSL. Jindal Stainless' architecture division was formed in 2003 to promote the use of stainless steel in infrastructure and new areas. This division provides comprehensive project services, including planning, designing, fabrication and erection on a turnkey basis.

The lifestyle product division — Art'dinox — was set up to design and produce stainless steel artefacts. It focuses on technical and design innovations in stainless steel.

The sources said that unlike the stainless steel business, both the lifestyle products and architecture businesses have a retail focus. Making them independent entities would help in expanding their retail operations.

The officials added that the company is seriously looking at acquisitions abroad. Plans are on to acquire iron ore and chrome mines in South East Asia and West Asia, respectively.

For inorganic growth and capacity expansion, the company also plans to acquire a stainless steel cold rolling mill in South East Asia, the officials said. Last year, the company had acquired a 50,000-tonne cold rolling mill in Indonesia with an investment of $32 million.

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