Actis seeks to buy Welspun road assets for up to ₹10,000 cr

He said the BK Goenka-led infrastructure and energy firm’s road assets, which are up for sale, include five hybrid annuity model (HAM) roads and one build-operate-transfer (BOT) project.

“The negotiations between Actis and Welspun are at an advanced stage. Due diligence and negotiations on advertisements will be completed soon. Welspun expects to close the sale process by the end of March. The equity value of the transaction is expected to be well over 2,000 crore,” said one of the two people cited above.

“Actis is one of the most active investors looking for road projects in India and is involved in at least three major sales processes. They have a lot of capital that they want to invest in yield-bearing infrastructure assets in India and roads are currently a very attractive option for such investors. For Welspun, the monetization will help reduce its group-level debt and recycle capital for construction projects,” the person said.

Emailed queries to Actis remained unanswered till press time.

A Welspun Enterprises spokesperson declined to comment on negotiations with Actis, but said that “in keeping with our asset-light approach, we work with global investors to generate value from our completed projects through timely sales.” In talks to unlock.”

“We remain optimistic about our HAM and BOT portfolio. Backed by our strong project-execution capabilities, we recently completed our fifth HAM project in Amravati. Our company’s projects that have achieved PCOD/COD (Provisional Commercial) Operational date), are well positioned to generate revenue and provide optimum value to the stakeholders. With another BOT project likely to achieve PCOD in February, we will enable projects worth more than this 8,800 crore to generate revenue and profit,” the spokesperson said.

The second person said India’s roads and broader infrastructure sector is seeing great interest from foreign investors, driven by the promise of higher yields at a time when returns on investment in developed markets are historically low.

Mint It reported last week that investors including Actis, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and I Square Capital-backed road operator Cube Highways have entered the final round of talks to acquire Peak Infrastructure, a partnership with Canadian investor Brookfield. Owned is a portfolio of operational street assets. , This portfolio of five properties is expected to generate an enterprise value of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion.

Cube, the largest investor in road projects in India, is in talks with a pension fund and a sovereign wealth fund to raise up to $1 billion through an infrastructure investment trust. Mint Reported on 23 September. Canada’s British Columbia Investments is among those who have shown interest.

In November, the National Highways Authority of India said that CPPIB and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan would be anchor investors for its first InvIT, with 25% equity each. NHAI Invitation Raised 6,000 crore through the offering.