Jindal Iron & Steel Co (Jisco) and Jindal Vijayanagar Steel (JVSL) are being merged into a single entity, making it India's second largest integrated steel producer in the private sector, after Tata Steel.

Jisco will be merged with JVSL in a reverse merger, to create a single Rs.4,000 crore entity. The merged entity will have fully integrated operations from iron ore mining to HR coil products, to value-added galvanising products.

JVSL is a subsidiary of Jisco, with the parent holding at around 20 per cent. JVSL was set up in 1995 and has a 2 million tonne HR coil manufacturing plant at Bellary in Karnataka. Jisco produces cold-rolled coils and galvanised products, with a total capacity of 5 million tpa. It has a cold rolling mill at Tarapur and a galvanising facility at Vasind, both in Maharashtra.

The merger issue will be considered at the company's board meeting on 22 October 2003.

It may be recalled that the Jindal group also created a new company, Jindal Stainless Ltd, that tookover the stainless steel manufacturing business of Jindal Strips Ltd (JSL), which is now merely a holding company.