New Delhi: National Highways Infra Trust (NHIT) on Tuesday said it has raised over Rs 16,000 crore through equity and debt to acquire nearly 900 km of road from NHAI.
This is the largest monetization of assets by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI).
NHIT is an infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) sponsored by the NHAI.
According to an official statement, “NHIT, has concluded fund-raising through ‘InvIT Round-3’ for National Highway stretches of aggregate length of 889 kilometers at an enterprise value of over Rs 16,000 crore, which is the largest monetization by NHAI and one of the largest transactions in the history of Indian road sector.”
NHIT has raised unit capital of around Rs 7,272 crore from marquee domestic and international investors and debt of around Rs 9,000 crore from Indian lenders, to fund the acquisition of National Highway stretches.
InvIT is an instrument on the pattern of mutual funds, designed to pool money from investors and invest in assets that will provide cash flows over a period of time.
The letter of acceptance (LOA) to raise the highest-ever concession value through ’InvIT Round-3’ was issued in February 2024, it added.
The units witnessed strong demand from both existing and new investors, including foreign pension funds viz Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, which are existing unit holders and subscribed to the maximum limit of 25 per cent each.
Domestic pension/provident funds which subscribed in the funding round include (IOCL Employees PF, L&T Staff PF, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Karamchari Pension Fund, SBI Pension etc), insurance companies (Tata AIG, SBI Life, HDFC Life), mutual funds (SBI, Nippon India), banks and few others, the statement said.
NHAI also subscribed to its share of 15 per cent of the units at the same price, it
added.