Secondary steelmaker Jai Balaji Industries plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore in Bengal’s Durgapur in value-added steel capacity and cost optimisation projects.

The company, which was once reeling under financial stress with a peak debt of Rs 3,400 crore, is now aiming to be net debt free in 18 months. It will depend on internal accruals for the ongoing phase of investment.

In the process, the share of value-added products in the Jai Balaji stable will go up to 80 per cent from 55 per cent. The company plans to more than double the capacity of ductile iron pipe, which is used in drinking water distribution, and also expand the capacity of high-end ferro alloy by 50 per cent.

Aditya Jajodia, chairman and managing director of Jai Balaji Industries, said the focus would be on profitable growth and shun taking on debt as far as possible, learning from the difficult period. “Growth may be slow but it should be on a very solid foundation,” Jajodia said after reporting a more than eight-fold jump in net profit to Rs 234.6 crore in the third quarter even as the topline remained flat.

Jai Balaji expects to reach a topline of Rs 9,000-10,000 crore by 2025-26 when the present phase of expansion ends in 18 months. It is targeting an EBIDTA margin of 18-20 per cent. If the company manages to do so, it would be a remarkable turnaround from Rs 1,300 crore topline recorded in 2015-16 when the loss ballooned to over Rs 550 crore.

The change in fortune has not gone unnoticed with the investors as the stock jumped a whopping 18 times in the last one year to close at Rs 989 on Monday. In December, it raised Rs 559 crore from Tata Capital to give exits to two asset reconstruction companies that had picked up the NPA debt from Indian banks.

In the process, Jai Balaji was saved from slipping into bankruptcy and the present promoter group and management were tasked to take the company out of the crisis.

Jajodia said he would target to repay the Tata Capital debt ahead of the schedule.