NHAI-backed Raajmarg Infra InvIT garners Rs 1,728 crore from anchor investors

New Delhi: State-owned National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)-sponsored Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT) on Tuesday raised Rs 1,728 crore from anchor investors, including LIC, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance and Bajaj Life Insurance.

This came ahead of the InvIT's Rs 6,000-crore initial public offering, which opens for subscription on March 11. This will be the first time NHAI opens its asset monetisation programme to retail investors.

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According to a circular uploaded on BSE's website, a total of 17.28 crore units have been allocated to anchor investors at a price of Rs 100 per unit, aggregating to Rs 1,728 crore.

The anchor investors include a mix of pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds, banks, provident funds and alternative investment funds.

Other key investors included Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, Tata AIG General Insurance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and several NPS Trust schemes managed by SBI, UTI, ICICI Prudential and Kotak Pension Funds.

Mutual funds such as HDFC MF, Nippon India MF, Axis MF, Aditya Birla Sun Life MF, DSP, Quant, WhiteOak Capital and Edelweiss also participated in the anchor book. In addition, investments were received from the provident funds of Indian Oil Corporation, Sebi employees, and Maharashtra State Electricity Board.

The InvIT's IPO price has been fixed between Rs 99 and Rs 100 per unit. The issue would conclude on March 13.

The initiative marks an important step in broadening public participation in the National Highway infrastructure growth story.

The public InvIT aims to unlock the monetisation potential of the National Highway assets while creating a high-quality, long-term investment instrument primarily targeting retail and domestic investors.

According to the Red Herring Prospectus (RHP), Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust's IPO issue size aggregates up to Rs 6,000 crore. This was an increase from Rs 5,700 crore planned at the time of filing draft papers in January.

The InvIT proposes an initial portfolio of five toll roads in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, operating under the Toll-Operate-Transfer model based on concessions granted by the NHAI to the project SPV.

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The toll roads consist of five toll roads spanning over 260 km, forming part of the Golden Quadrilateral project.

Earlier, NHAI had incorporated Raajmarg Infra Investment Managers Pvt Ltd (RIIMPL) as the investment manager for the Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust.

RIIMPL is a collaborative venture with equity participation from leading banks and financial institutions, including State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, NaBFID, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv Ventures Ltd, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, IndusInd Bank, and YES Bank.

The InvIT said 75 percent of the offer size has been reserved for qualified institutional buyers, which include anchor investors, and the remaining 25 per cent for non-institutional investors.

Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust will make its stock market debut on March 24.

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