Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) Ltd is raising a new infrastructure fund, under its private equity business, with a target corpus of almost $1 billion, said a senior executive of the group. The private equity business of IL&FS group is housed under IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd (IIML).
Across its various funds, IIML has invested in various sectors such as telecom, city gas distribution, shipyards, retail and media.
Funds managed by IIML span general purpose private equity, real estate and infrastructure.
“We are in the market to raise a infrastructure private equity fund of $1 billion. We launched the fund nine months ago and we are in advanced discussions to close an anchor investor for the fund. The anchor investor is a large foreign institutional investor,” said Ramesh C. Bawa, managing director and chief executive at IL&FS Financial Services Ltd in a media roundtable in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Bawa added that the firm expects to tie up commitments for around 25-30% of the corpus in the next four to six months.
“The fund will primarily invest in asset classes such roads and energy and will largely invest in operational assets,” Bawa added.
IL&FS is not the only Indian firm that is looking to raise an infrastructure fund.
Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd is currently in the market to raise an infrastructure-focused fund that is targeting a raise of around Rs6,500 crore or $1 billion.
Mint was the first to report in November that Edelweiss was planning to raise up to a billion dollars for an infrastructure-focused fund under its asset management business.
Earlier in 2016, Tata Power Co. Ltd partnered with ICICI Venture Funds Management Co. Ltd to create a platform company to invest up to $850 million in power projects in India over two-three years.
In 2014, IDFC Alternatives Ltd, the private equity arm of IDFC Ltd, raised its second infrastructure fund, India Infrastructure Fund II, with a corpus of $900 million.
Other infrastructure-focused funds active in India include global infrastructure fund I Squared Capital, founded by former Morgan Stanley senior executives and Australia’s Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA).
In August, Reuters reported that I Squared Capital is raising its second infrastructure fund of up to $6.5 billion. I Squared’s investments in India include roads platform Cube Highways and Infrastructure and distributed renewable energy company Amplus Energy Solutions.
Last year, MIRA, part of the asset management arm of Macquarie Group, raised $3.1 billion to invest in infrastructure companies in Asia, including India.
In September, The Economic Times reported that Morgan Stanley is set to make a first close of $400-500 million for its maiden $1-billion India-dedicated infrastructure fund
Source: Mint