JSW Steel soars on plans to swoop down on US target

JSW Steel soars on plans to swoop down on US target

JSW Steel had risen 5.06% to Rs 596.50 at 10:05 IST after its board
decided to meet on 21 August 2007 to consider buying a steel mill in
the US.

The company made this announcement before market hours today, 20
August 2007.

The BSE Sensex, meanwhile, was up 451 points to 14,500 tracking firm
world markets.

On BSE, 6,358 shares were traded on the counter today. The scrip had
an average daily volume of 1.54 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

Shares of India's third largest steel maker by sales had hit a high of
Rs 604 and a low of Rs 572 so far during the day. They had touched a
52-week high of Rs 771.40 on 24 July 2007 and a 52-week low of Rs
261.10 on 19 September 2006.

JSW Steel had underperformed the market over the last one month to 17
August 2007, declining 19.26% compared to the Sensex's fall of 9.06%.
It had also underperformed the market over the past quarter, declining
5.21% compared to the Sensex's fall of 1.13%.

>From a recent high of Rs 736.65 on 31 July 2007, the scrip had
declined 22.92% to Rs 567.75 on 17 August 2007.

The company's current equity is Rs 163.97 crore, with 16.397 crore
outstanding shares of face value of Rs 10.

The current price of Rs 596.50 discounts its Q1 June 2007 annualised
EPS of Rs 112.6 (based on consolidated results) by a PE multiple of
5.29.

Last month, there were reports JSW Steel was in talks to buy a US-
based steel plate mill firm for an estimated $1.2 billion. Reportedly,
the steel mill has a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes and is owned by a
group of private investors.

JSW Steel recently set up JSoft Solutions, a Bangalore-based IT
company, that is likely to be spun off as an independent vertical.

Meanwhile, JSW Steel is reportedly planning to raise around Rs 3400
crore in the international markets. The fund raising is expected to be
done over the next six to 12 months. The funds are aimed at helping
the company's Rs 17000-crore expansion plans.

JSW's net profit rose 151.2% to Rs 427.78 crore on a 37.2% increase in
sales to Rs 2190.72 in Q1 June 2007 over Q1 June 2006.

JSW Steel is part of the OP Jindal Group with interests in mining,
carbon steel, power and oxygen.