Srei arm to put in Rs 3400 cr in two years

Quipo Infrastructure Equipments (QIEL) of the Srei group, the first equipment rental company in the country, is planning to invest Rs 3,400 crore over the next two years for acquisition of assets.

A majority of the investment would be in QIEL's telecom infrastructure business.

The company has raised Rs 150 crore through private placement of equity to IDFC Private Equity Fund (2) and GIC Special Investments of Singapore.

Quipo MD Sunil Kanoria said the focus of Quipo in the next couple of years would be on telecom infrastructure.

Quipo has a wholly owned subsidiary in telecom and oil and gas sectors. Quipo would invest close to Rs 2,000 crore in Quipo Telecom Infrastructure out of its total capex plan of Rs 3,400 crore in the next two years. "We are planning to set up 6,000 towers in the next financial year. The investment for this will be close to Rs 2,000 crore," he said.

QTIL currently has close to 500 towers all over the country. Besides, oil and gas and telecom, Quipo has three more group companies NAC Infrastructure, a joint venture with Larsen & Toubro and the Andhra Pradesh government, Valuation and Asset Disposal Company, a joint venture with Henry Butcher, a plant and machinery valuation outfit.

Commenting on the Rs 150 crore private placement by IDFC Private Equity and GIC, he said that it reflected the strong endorsement of the business model of providing infrastructure solutions.

After the private placement, GIC and IDFC Private Equity would jointly hold 31 per cent in QIEL.

The stake of Srei would come down to 15.5 per cent and the rest would be with FMO of Netherlands, Swedish fund and domestic venture funds.

According to Kanoria, Quipo is hoping to touch Rs 200 crore turnover by March 2007 and targeting Rs 400 crore by March 2008.