The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) on Monday said it has acquired Essel Devanahalli Tollway and Essel Dichpally Tollway through the NIIF Master Fund.
With this acquisition, NIIF has taken the first step to build its portfolio in the roads and highways sector.
“NIIF is pleased to announce acquisition of Essel Devanahalli Tollway and Essel Dichpally Tollway through the NIIF Master Fund,” it said in a statement.
These projects will be managed by Athaang Infrastructure, NIIF’s proprietary roads platform backed by a team of experienced professionals with rich domain expertise in the transportation sector, NIIF said.
Essel Dichpally is a strategic arterial 22-km six-lane toll road in Karnataka, connecting Bengaluru city and its airport.
The road, part of NH44 (erstwhile NH7), with an operational history of over six years, is well poised to cater to the growing needs of Bengaluru city and the airport, and will benefit from the growth potential of Bengaluru as a metropolitan, it said.
Essel Dichpally is a 60-km four-lane toll road in Telangana, the statement said.
“A mature asset, operational for over seven years, this road is an important link between two key industrial hubs, Hyderabad and Nagpur and serves long distance commercial traffic,” it added.
In addition to the road sector platform, NIIF Master Fund has anchored platforms in the ports and logistics, renewables, and energy smart meters sectors, the statement said.
“Hindustan Infralog Private Ltd, our ports and logistics platform, is amongst the leading players in the container logistics and domestic supply chain management business,” NIIF said.
Ayana Renewables is developing 1.1 GW of greenfield capacity and is also actively evaluating acquisitions, it said adding, IntelliSmart is the market leader in the energy smart meter sector and is aggressively working towards meeting the government”s target of installing 250 million smart meters.
“NIIF is pleased to announce its first investment in the roads sector. Athaang will invest in strategic assets and develop a portfolio including mature operational assets, annuities/hybrid annuities, large size expressways and highways with greenfield and brownfield expansion requirements.
“Athaang’s objective is to emerge as the preferred partner for stakeholders in the Indian roads sector,” Vinod Giri, Managing Partner, NIIF, said.
NIIF is a collaborative investment platform for international and Indian investors, anchored by the government.
It invests across asset classes such as infrastructure, private equity and other diversified sectors in India, with the objective to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns for its investors.
