India-UK GGEF on the anvil

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has made its First investment on 22 Jan 2018, partnering with DP World to create an investment platform for ports, terminals, transportation and logistics businesses in India, said an official press note.

The platform will invest in opportunities in the ports sector, and beyond sea ports into areas such as river ports and transportation, freight corridors, port-led special economic zones, inland container terminals, and logistics infrastructure including cold storage.

The first close of the NIIF Master Fund took place on 16 October 2017 with contributions from a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and four Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs), viz., HDFC Group, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Life and Axis Bank.

An India-UK Green Growth Equity Fund (GGEF) is also being set-up under the fund of funds vertical of NIIF, and shall have anchor commitments of GBP 120 million each from Government of India (through NIIF) and Government of UK.

Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), said, “NIIF, set-up to function as a major platform in India for attracting foreign investments, has made good progress.

“We are pleased to learn of NIIF’s first investment to create an investment platform in the ports and logistics sector. Following its First Close in October 2017 on the fund-raising side, and now with its first investment, NIIF is making visible progress.”

The NIIF is being operationalized by establishing three Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) under the SEBI Regulations.

The proposed corpus of NIIF is Rs.40,000 Crores (around US$6 billion).

The Government of India’s contribution to the AIFs under the NIIF scheme shall be 49% of the total commitment.

NIIF has mandate to solicit equity participation from strategic anchor partners, like overseas sovereign/quasi-sovereign/multilateral/bilateral investors. fii-news.com