Two international pension funds, namely Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, as anchor investors, will hold 25% of the units each in the recently launched Infrastructure Investment Trust (NHAI InvIT) of NHAI. The balance units were placed with a diversified set of domestic institutional investors comprising pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, banks and financial institutions, said a press statement from NHAI.

The InvIT will initially have a portfolio of five operating toll roads with an aggregate length of 390 kilometers, with more roads planned to be added later. These roads are located across the states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Telangana. NHAI has granted new concessions of 30-years for these roads.

The total enterprise value of the initial portfolio of 5 roads was pegged at Rs.8011.52 crore.

NHAI InvIT is funded through debt of Rs.2000 crore from State Bank of India, Axis Bank and Bank of Maharashtra. The balance is being funded by issuing units of Rs.6011.52 crore to international and domestic institutional investors, and NHAI as Sponsor, added the statement.

“We are pleased that NHAI InvIT has been able to garner funds from marquee international and domestic institutional investors to support the Government of India’s National Monetisation Pipeline,” said Giridhar Armane, Secretary MoRTH and NHAI Chairman. We welcome the two anchor investors – Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, and other reputed domestic investors, into NHAI InvIT, he added.

This is the second InvIT in the country to be floated by a public sector company after PowerGrid Corporation of India (PGC) raised about Rs 3,480 crore in April.

Three top Canadian pension funds, including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTTP) and leading local insurers such as Life Insurance Corp. of India and HDFC Life are among the frontline investors likely to buy into the InvIT, ET had reported in August.

As part of the monetisation programme announced by the government, NHAI plans to sell about 32 more operational road assets spanning 1,500 km as well as upcoming ToT (toll operate transfer) projects.