Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited and US private equity manager KKR have acquired a combined 42% stake in India Grid Trust (IndiGrid) for a total 2,046 crores (US$299 million) by purchasing new shares in the Indian infrastructure trust.
KKR also plans to acquire an additional 15% stake, giving the US company and GIC a combined 57% shareholding in the Indian firm at a total investment of $363 million, IndiGrid says in a statement on May 5.
IndiGrid mainly invests in power transmission projects across India and the company says money from the stake sale will be used to finance the acquisition of five electricity transmission assets in the country.
IndiGrid was set up in 2016 by Mumbai-based Sterlite Power, which issued the new shares which were purchased by KKR and GIC for 1,084 crores and 980 crores, respectively.
Sterlite Power, which currently owns 20.7% of IndiGrid, will sell the additional 15% shareholding to KKR.
KKR will also acquire from Sterlite Power an unspecified majority stake in Sterlite Investment Managers, an asset manager owned by the Indian firm. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“With this new capital investment, we will reach our goal of 17,000 crores of assets under management and are well on our way to achieving 30,000 crores of assets under management by 2022 while also providing stable and predictable returns to our investors,” Harsh Shah, chief executive officer of IndiGrid, says in the statement.
“Asia Pacific is a core focus for KKR’s global infrastructure strategy, and India is a key market for us in the region given its dynamism, the scale of investment opportunities and its crucial need for capital solutions,” adds David Luboff, KKR’s head of Asia Pacific infrastructure.
GIC has over $100 billion of total assets currently, while KKR had around $200 billion of assets under management at the end of March 2019.
