NHAI raises record Rs 16,000 crore war chest via highway monetisation

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New Delhi, March 19 (IANS) National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), has raised a record Rs 16,000 crore through its Infrastructure Investment Trust for the monetisation of various highway stretches of the aggregate length of 889 kilometers.

“National Highways Infra Trust (NHIT) has, as part of’ InvIT Round-3, 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, at a base concession fee of around Rs 15,625 crore, and additional concessional fees of Rs.75 crore,” NHAI said on Tuesday.

The units were subscribed by investors through a book build process at a cut-off price of Rs. 124.14 per unit, at a premium over the current NAV of Rs 122.86 per unit.

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 (IOCL Employee’s 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.

NHAI also subscribed to its share of 15 per cent of the units at the same price, according to the NHAI statement.

With the completion of the third round of monetisation, the total realized value of all three rounds of InvIT stands at Rs 26,125 crore and holds a diversified portfolio of fifteen operating toll roads with an aggregate length of about 1,525 km spread across the 9 states including Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, with concession periods ranging between 20 to 30 years.

Commenting on the success of the latest round of NHAI’s monetisation, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Anurag Jain said: “NHIT is a successful example of Public Private Partnership (PPP), in which it has played a very important role in supporting National Monetisation Pipeline. While doing that NHIT has established itself as a leading player in the InvIT space, playing a critical role in channelising financial capital into the further development of Indian roads sector.”

--IANS

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