 "Macquarie")
Baiju Kalesh and Dong Cao
(Bloomberg) -- Macquarie Group is considering selling a portfolio of nine highway projects in India and may seek at least $1.5 billion, according people familiar with the situation.
The firm is in preliminary discussions with advisers about the potential deal, the people said, asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Deliberations are at an early stage and Macquarie may decide to keep the assets, the people said.
A representative for Macquarie declined to comment.
The Australian financial giant won a government-led bidding process in 2018 with an offer of 96.8 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) for a so-called toll-operate-transfer agreement, according to a press release. The projects consist of about 681 kilometers of roads in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
India plans to spend 11 trillion rupees on highways within the decade, including monetizing 400 billion rupees worth of highway projects through toll-operate-transfer, it said in 2021.
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