 "Road projects")
KKR-backed Highways Infrastructure Trust (HIT) will acquire 12 road projects from PNC Infratech and PNC Infra Holdings at an enterprise value of Rs 9,005.7 crore. This will be one of the biggest acquisitions in the road and highways sector.
The transaction is subject to certain regulatory and customary conditions, including approval from regulatory authorities and banks.
The road portfolio comprises 11 hybrid annuity concessions from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and one toll road concession from the Uttar Pradesh State Highways Authority (UPSHA). In hybrid annuity concessions, NHAI pays 40 per cent of the total project expenditure, while the rest is arranged by the developer. The total projects represent about 3,800 lane kilometres in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka, the company said in a statement.
Of the 12 projects, 10 are currently operational and rest are under-construction, and will be acquired after operations begin.
“This is a defining transaction in the roads sector, and acquisition of this portfolio demonstrates our commitment to growth and delivering value to our unit holders,” said Neeraj Sanghi, chief executive officer, Highway Concessions One, the investment manager of the trust.
Sanghi said the company looked forward to integrating these assets into its portfolio.
Gaurav Chandna, head – strategic finance, Highway Concessions One, said, "Annuity nature of cashflows from the
road portfolio would provide further stability to our existing portfolio," adding the transaction was one of the largest acquisitions in the highways sector.
This investment is in line with our thesis of acquiring assets with long balance concession life, generating predictable distributions for our unitholders. We are happy to share that with this transaction and other signed (and announced) transactions, HIT’s assets under management are estimated to cross Rs 20,000 crore (i.e. 4 times since the initial listing)," Chandna said.
