Shareholder returns, low debt make me content: Naveen Jindal

JSPL non-executive chairman Naveen Jindal, who made it to the Fortune India list of Best CEOs this year, on the back of the company’s stellar growth in the last three years, says that achieving targets and ensuring low debt and good returns for shareholders makes him content as an industrialist. Jindal points out that Covid pandemic has been one of the biggest challenges, and halting operations was not an option, as it would have meant shutting down forever.

“Success to me means that we operate our plants efficiently and profitably. You have very low debt and are very comfortable,” Jindal said. While the company has posted 14.8% CAGR growth in sales and 17.8% CAGR growth in profit after tax in the last three years, Jindal recalls the Covid pandemic as the most challenging time in the last four years. “During the pandemic, we experienced things we had not experienced before, and we continued to work. Stopping was not an option. If we had stopped, maybe we would have stopped forever,” he said.